


Vengeance and Prophecy

by AndyAO3



Category: Diablo (Video Game), Diablo III
Genre: And possibly violence later on, Bumping the rating up to explicit, Drinking, Gen, Hey look now there's smut, It's a bit awkward and neither of them knows what they're doing, M/M, Okay now it has some violence in it, Possibly smut in later chapters, Spoilers, but you guys will have to wait a bit for the smut still, h/c, hangovers, ongoing fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-05-01
Packaged: 2018-01-16 17:15:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 34,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1355338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndyAO3/pseuds/AndyAO3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Battles are rarely ever won without cost, but Lyndon never expected the aftermath of the ragtag bunch's greatest victory to be like this.</p><p>An ongoing tale that ties into the previous fic, Things The Wizard Is No Longer Allowed To Do, as a direct sequel. Written from a certain thief's point of view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rough Start To A Morning

**Author's Note:**

> SECOND FIC, YAY.
> 
> Yo, folks! Glad you found this. Sorry in advance for this being so much darker than the previous fic, but there's a time and a place for comedy, and there's a time and a place for folks being unhappy. I'm posting these in the order that I wrote them - which puts the prologue-ish bit at about chapter 3 - and since I wrote a lot of these up as I was writing the other fic but didn't want to spoil that one, I'm going to mass-post what I've got and then continue from there.
> 
> Expect spoilers. I'll bring the crusader in as soon as I get a feel for him. Will tie in to the act 5 intro, and depending on how long it ends up running, possibly the events of act 5 and the character storylines found therein. Haven't decided how this one's gonna end yet.

So, Lyndon wasn't exactly sure how he had gotten in the position he currently found himself in. Which, to be honest, wasn't the least bit new. Considering the position involved being completely naked and in bed (well, a bedroll) with his magically inclined and _male_ travelling companion, however, he sort of wished he did know.

The wizard was fast asleep - and Lyndon wasn't really sure how long that might last - with his arms wound tightly about the thief's waist, his hair down and all over the place, and bruises and bites littering what Lyndon could see of his neck and shoulders. Easing himself back down while trying to jostle both his aching head and the sleeping mage as little as possible, Lyndon let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding and allowed himself to relax. Just a bit.

It could be worse. He could have woken up next to that bloody Templar. He could have also woken up next to Eirena, but that would just end with that bloody Templar murdering him at the first opportunity, so he supposed in the long run, that, too, could be considered a worse option.

Ah, and there was the first _real_ throbbing of the hangover that had been creeping up on him since he'd woken up. Lovely.

The warm body next to him shifted a little, and he heard a sleepy murmur. Then he heard a pained, confused and groggy sort of groan, and that same body curled up on itself, with the wizard pulling his hands away from Lyndon to clutch at his head. Grinning to himself, the rogue couldn't help feeling a little smug - clearly, his companion was considerably less used to such things than he was, himself. At least he had one advantage over the man.

"There is an army of khazra banging away at their blasted drums inside my head." Poor sod, he even sounded like death warmed over. Lyndon found himself regretting even more that he didn't remember what had happened to make it that way.

The wizard poked his head back up long enough to squint at whoever was next to him, and once recognition kicked in, his expression was at once confused, embarassed and a little bit afraid. Even though he was usually the first to offer a quip or remark under any other circumstances, at that very moment he seemed lost for words. And Lyndon could endure _any_ head-splitting hangover that his escapades might throw at him, just for the sheer triumph of achieving _that_ little feat.

"Lyndon?" the wizard ventured, disbelieving.

"Very observant of you. Are you always this perceptive in the morning? Thank the gods that the Lords of Hell didn't decide to send their armies at you at any point when you were barely out of bed yet--"

" _Lyndon._ " A warning growl, that time - the man's hands were clapped over his ears, his eyes were squeezed shut and he was curled back in on himself again. Right, so he wasn't in a mood for jokes.

...not that the rogue would shut up entirely. "I take it this doesn't happen to you often, then."

"I'm not usually this careless, no," grumbled the wizard in return.

"Well, if I have to go fetch you water, breakfast and a bucket for until the nausea passes, then you _will_ owe me afterward."

"Lyndon, If it gets you to leave me in peace for even a moment..."

"Oh, _fine_." Lyndon heaved himself up into a sitting position, scanned the room for his discarded clothes (his trousers, shirt, and belt, for example, he could spot, but his coat had gone missing; the wizard's own clothes were everywhere) and forced himself to stand without too much wobbling or staggering to fetch them. And as he put them on, the wizard didn't say another word, though whether that was because of the headache or general awkwardness, Lyndon didn't know.

With a final glance back at the miserable ball of naked - and probably cold - mage on his bedroll, he set off down the hall to procure whatever the man might end up needing, telling himself that he was doing it out of general chivalry and _not_ actual affection all the while.

He found his coat hanging off of an unlit torch in the keep's great hall.

 


	2. Could Be Worse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eirena wishes to bury her head under a pillow and die. But mostly she just wishes she could work up the ambition to hit Lyndon upside the head with her staff.

After he'd brought the ailing wizard a few things that he could use to cope a little with the hangover, Lyndon had come back out into the keep proper to discern how many people knew _first_ , and what had happened _second_. Then again, from how they'd reacted to him when he'd first ventured out of the room to get those things to begin with, he could already tell that most people _knew_ about the little affair.

His head hurt too much for him to be able to decide whether that was a good thing or not as he finally allowed himself to sit down at one of the few intact tables (tunic retrieved, and boots found in a cupboard) to eat a meager breakfast of toast and dried fruit while nursing a healing potion. Everyone was staring, of course. Whatever he'd gotten up to, it was prompting mixed reactions of sly and knowing grins, gestures of congratulations, expressions of shock and mortification, and the occasional tired glare from someone who had clearly gotten little sleep. None of them dared to sit near enough to him for a chat, though, which was a shame.

Eirena was actually the first to sit with him, and she didn't look much better than the wizard had. Her usually tidy updo was a mess, with strands of platinum blonde hair falling messily about her exhausted and slightly sick-looking face. One of her boots was unbuckled, she wasn't wearing her gloves, and she was wearing that old top of hers that completely exposed her midriff, probably because it was the easiest thing to throw on.

Not that she was there to talk. She was there to _look_ like she was about to talk, then groan, and promptly faceplant the table. Lyndon gave her back a gentle pat (which she halfheartedly waved away) and scooted his bottle of healing potion towards her.

"Rough morning, I take it." He didn't have the heart to truly tease her, so he kept his voice fairly low.

The little enchantress snatched the healing potion that was offered, and eased herself up enough to be able to take a sip. "I am not drinking that much ever again."

"Oh, you say that _now_ , but give it a while and you'll be at it again with another miserable morning that makes you say the exact same bloody thing."

"You did not have Kormac prodding you in the at dawn asking you what is to be done about demon hunters with high fevers."

Lyndon flashed her his best grin. "Yet another reason I'm glad to have no responsibility whatever." But he knew when to joke, and when to be serious. One of their brave heroes being bedridden was serious. "Is he _still_ out of action, then? One should think all he needed was a good rest."

"It seems that in the last days before we defeated Diablo, he was not sleeping at all - he told Kormac so, and it was in his journal - and he had been getting less and less even up until then as we defended the keep and made our way towards Azmodan." She was even being gingerly about drinking that healing potion. "Likely he was not eating as much as he should, either."

"He never _has_." The demon hunter had always looked a bit thin, even under all that armor, to Lyndon. Lanky was one thing, gaunt was another entirely. If he hadn't been sleeping at all, it was no wonder the man had collapsed after Diablo was finished; he had been the one working the hardest when it came to every goal, out of everyone in their merry band. The thief wasn't actually completely convinced that their demon hunter wasn't just some sort of hatred-fueled automaton in a man's guise, sometimes. "I say we throw a second celebration after he wakes, so that both he and Kormac can participate properly."

Eirena threw him an icy glare. "We are not _celebrating_ again."

"Fiiine." Lyndon retrieved the healing potion from her - ignoring her half-assed noise of protest - and took a good swig before handing it back. Seeing other people miserable was putting him in a slightly better mood, at least. "You're just sore you didn't wake up next to someone like I did, I'd wager."

"I am sore because my head hurts and I feel ill."

"Mind you, it's all a bit of a blur after I proposed we see who could drink the most without seeing double," the rogue continued, oblivious.

"Shen won. Haedrig second. Captain Haile is third." At least her automatic reflex of trying to give people information when they lacked it was still working, in spite of her irritation with Lyndon's insistance upon continued conversation. "Everyone else that was not on watch went to bed, myself included. After that, I know only what I heard, and what I heard proved that the halls here echo too much." Eirena shot him another annoyed look as she returned to nursing that healing potion, alternating between drinking it and pressing the cool bottle to her head. "Now can we be done with _talking_ , please?"

"Yes, quite. Thank you for the wonderful and pleasant chat, Eirena." Her reply was another glare. He scooted his plate to her, allowing her to have what he'd left on it - he didn't have much of an appetite anyway - and moved to get up, popping his shoulders and neck as he stood.

Well! That filled in a few of the blanks, at least. Sure, most of it was still like a barely-remembered dream to him, but he mostly had a handle on what had led up to it. All he had left to do was figure out just what to do about the wizard in his bed, then. But that was quite possibly the most complicated issue of all; he wasn't quite sure what the other man's feelings were for him. Worse still, he wasn't sure what his own were, exactly.

He'd always been rubbish at feelings.

 


	3. A Little Background

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prologue chapter! Even insane demon hunters need to eat and sleep sometime, not that insane demon hunters pay attention to that when there's demons that need hunting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason this is here instead of at the beginning is, again, because it was the third chapter of this that I actually wrote.

The Lord of Terror, the Prime Evil, was dead. Finished. Gone.

None of them could believe it at first. The bony cages that had trapped the three companions previously had suddenly dissipated, and for a moment Eirena, Kormac and Lyndon had just stood there, dumbstruck. Then the moment passed and all three of them broke into a run, following the path to the Arch as daylight broke through the stormclouds for the first time in who knew how long. Tyrael was not far behind them, catching up quickly with his long strides.

The demon hunter, Ander, and the wizard Li, were there waiting for them, catching their breath and staring at each other in disbelief and awe. The remaining sympathetic (and now fully recovered and restored) aspects of the Angiris Council, Ithereal and Auriel, had joined them, and were offering their congratulations in their otherworldly, musical voices. Well, Auriel was. Ithereal was just looking unreadable and mysterious as he often did.

Tyrael offered his own aknowledgements - to which the demon hunter was quick to remind him "so long as the Burning Hells exist, there will still be evil, my friend" - and went with Auriel and Ithereal to join them once again as part of the Council. Only at that point did the humans finally feel comfortable chiming in; something about the angels commanded respect, and they weren't about to interrupt during such an important moment.

It was Eirena who broke the silence with a bubbling giggle that turned into a cheer, glomping the two heroes and giving each of them a kiss on the cheek in turn. Ander staggered slightly and went completely tense with the sudden contact, not even so much as giving her an awkward pat; Li laughed and returned the hug with a sort of warmth and relief that none of them had seen from him since before Adria's betrayal. The girl babbled about how happy and proud the Prophet would have been, and continued babbling even after the heroes' attention was divided.

Boisterous Kormac was next to offer his two copper, giving both men vigorous handshakes - Li flexed and shook his hand afterward like the templar had squeezed it much too hard, and Ander looked a bit shocked, but chanced a weak smile - and told them what an honor it was, what a glorious day it was and how good it was to know that no one had died up to that point in vain, because of the victory they'd earned.

Lyndon crowed in the meanwhile that he'd make sure all of Kingsport would be singing their names (hell, he could sing right now if they wanted him to), but his more honest contribution came a little later on, when Li noticed that in addition to the broad smile on the rogue's face, his eyes were looking a little wet.

"I can't believe you actually did it," he said in a voice barely above a whisper.

The wizard smirked wryly. "Lyndon, are you _crying?"_

"No, no, it's raining."

"It doesn't rain in the heavens."

"Well it does _now_!" he snapped back quickly, wiping at his eyes.

The celebrations and congratulations were brought to a screeching halt when the demon hunter quite suddenly collapsed in a heap.

" _Ander_!" came a gasp from Eirena. Kormac, however, was the first to act. The templar's helmet was off in an instant, chucked to the side and forgotten as he kneeled and hefted the featherweight hunter's torso off the ground so he could press an ear to the man's chest, listening intently.

"His heart still beats in his chest, but it is _very_ faint." Lyndon and Eirena breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that, and Kormac looked to the wizard. "Did he take any blows to the head during the battle?"

"If he did, I didn't see it happen," was the reply, a frown creasing Li's features. "Can you carry him, Kormac?"

"Easily." The question probably didn't even need to be asked; Kormac was easily twice the demon hunter's weight, if not more than that.

"Then we'll take him back to the keep. Eirena, a portal, if you would - we can't risk taking him all the way back to the waypoint like this."

"Consider it done," she answered, already bringing out a scroll.

Lyndon hesitated. He wasn't sure whether he could do anything useful at all. Already Kormac had scooped up the unconscious hunter, with Li taking charge in the man's mental absence and Eirena conjuring up a portal through which one could see the great hall of Bastion's Keep.

"Come on, Lyndon." The wizard's voice cut through whatever gloomy thoughts the thief may have had, bringing him back to reality. Giving the High Heavens a last glance, Lyndon stepped through, and the portal closed behind him.

 


	4. Small Wizard, Big Voice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lyndon makes a mental note to himself that even the shortest and least physically intimidating of wizards from Xiansai aren't to be trifled with when they've woken up on the wrong side of the proverbial bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And back to the story proper. Told you guys the tone is radically different.

When Lyndon came back to the room and filled Li in on the details of what was going on with their demon hunter companion, the wizard had been livid. It was as mad as he'd seen the man in a long time, and as far as he could tell, a good portion of it was directed internally. He only wished that he could see _why_ , because he knew it couldn't just be the hangover, or lingering regrets about their little tryst. He knew what _that_ sort of internal struggle would look like, and it seemed more like Li was battling with much bigger and more spiteful inner demons.

He watched the little wizard angrily pull on his robes, fix his hair and storm off to go give Kormac a talking to, and when he heard the echoes of the shouting quite a ways down the hall, Lyndon honestly felt a tiny bit bad for the Templar. Knowing he'd probably regret it later, he headed to the main hall, just in time to see Li tugging a stubborn, grumpy and clearly exhausted Templar by the wrist towards a table.

In a way, it was a little bit gratifying to watch the barely-taller-than-Eirena mage shove the bulky and protesting warrior - who was the only one of their group taller than the lanky demon hunter - into a chair, forcing him to sit. Kormac began to protest, but Li would have none of it.

"No. You will not work yourself to near-death as he did. You will _sit_ , you will _eat_ , and you will get some _rest_ , before I have Haedrig force the matter with the aid of a smithing hammer to the head." Li straightened with a huff, folding his arms across his chest and puffing himself up to look intimidating. "For the sake of all our health and sanity, I say we take shifts."

"Who's _we_?" Lyndon piped up, lifting a brow.

"You, me, Eirena, Kormac and Haedrig," the wizard replied without hesitation.

Kormac immediately came up with an objection. "But both Haedrig and the _scoundrel_ lack medical knowledge! Fair enough that we three should be included, I agree, but--"

"Both Haedrig and Lyndon are intelligent enough to notice and _mention_ when something's amiss, unlike certain _others_ I could name!" Li snapped back, effectively shutting the Templar up. "If you weren't a skilled healer, you would no longer be included in this!"

Silence reigned for several long moments, largely because no one wanted to incur the wizard's wrath. He hardly ever got angry at their little group, even at Kormac, whom he regarded as a little bit dim sometimes. After glancing around and realizing no one else was going to say anything, Lyndon decided it was probably best if he broke the ice, and cleared his throat loudly.

"So, who would be taking first shift, then?"

Everyone relaxed a little when the tense atmosphere was broken, Li included. The mage let out a slow breath as he thought for a moment on the answer. "...I will." he said.

Lyndon felt like he should protest, but Kormac interrupted before he could do so. "A fine idea. With the order you suggested, that would leave Haedrig and the scoundrel last - hopefully Ander will wake before then."

Li nodded, but with the way his lips pursed in a tight I'm Not Going To Say Anything frown, he didn't approve of how Kormac was referring to their smith and their thief. "Eirena, let about six hours pass before you come relieve me, and make sure this idiot sleeps." The words _this idiot_ were punctuated by a gesture in the Templar's direction, and without waiting for a reply from Eirena, he started in the direction of the ailing demon hunter's room.

Naturally, Lyndon followed him.

 


	5. So That's What The Problem Is

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How many times has he heard Li declare "I'm so good, I astound myself"?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always thought that there was more depth to the Wizard character than most people thought. :>

"Why were you yelling at the Templar? It's hardly _his_ fault that Ander stopped sleeping," Lyndon pressed, following the wizard down the hall to the room where the hunter was being kept. He hadn't been there yet, himself; quietly he hoped that it at least had either a fire going or was close enough to the center-bits of the keep that it was well-insulated from the outside. He was starting to feel like he needed an extra layer just to traverse these blasted corridors.

Li gave a mirthless laugh, walking at a surprisingly good clip for someone of his stature. "Hah! Since when do you take Kormac's side in _anything_?"

"Since you've stopped, apparently." A frown crossed the thief's face; this was getting more worrisome by the minute. "Just what has gotten into you lately? Ever since we've gotten back from the Heavens you've been acting, well..." Lyndon struggled to put it into words. "...Like a complete _git_ , really."

"You wouldn't understand." The mage's tone was curt and implied heavily that he wanted Lyndon to drop it and leave it alone; he should have known by then that the thief would take such a tone as a dare.

"Oh, I wouldn't, would I? Well I don't understand _now_ , so how much worse can it _get_?" It wasn't a surprise to the rogue at all when Li rounded on him, and he stopped in his tracks appropriately to keep from running into the smaller man, raising his brows inquisitively.

Li glared at him for several moments, but the thief could see that behind that glare, cogs in the wizard's head were definitely turning. "...Have you based your life's work on something you later found to be completely untrue, then? Or maybe you've thought yourself guided by some grand design that you discovered was thought up for someone else entirely?"

Lyndon had no answer, but that was hardly for lack of understanding. His whole demeanor softened; so _this_ was what the mage had been keeping from him. That damned prophecy of his.

"And then, that someone else made you look like a complete fool - like a child, even! All the while, _they_ became the real hero, _they_ deserve all of the credit," Li continued, not even looking at him anymore. "Oh, and when they worked themselves to exhaustion, because they never stopped to think of themselves in all of their altruism and all of their blasted _valor_ , just to add insult to injury, _you_ get the credit instead!"

"Li, don't--" the thief began in a gentle tone, but he was shouted down.

"I am no _hero_ , don't you see?! Don't _any_ of you see?! The one who _deserves_ all of this - the celebrations, the songs, the tales passed down till the end of time - is half _dead_ because true heroes aren't _blinded_ by arrogance and hubris to the point of not noticing when a close friend hasn't slept for a bloody _week_!"

For the first time, in the entire time that he'd known him, Lyndon saw the wizard break down. The prideful, confident and powerful mage was reduced to a boy, paralyzed by fear of the unknown. All of Li's crowing and posturing came from deep-seated insecurity, and with no prophecy to guide him, he had nothing else. No family, no mentors, no one close enough to him to truly make a difference; the prophecy had been the one thing that had made him feel like he _could_ be something greater than himself.

Except for having Lyndon himself, maybe.

Pushing the thought of how much this clearly proved he cared far, _far_ to the back of his mind, the thief stepped up to pull Li into a slightly awkward embrace, not aided in the slightest by the wizard growling and trying to shove him away in spite of being in tears.

"Get off of me, I don't need your blasted sympathy--"

"Shhhh shshshsh. Don't be ridiculous." If anyone needed sympathy at all, it was Li of all people. For some reason the wizard stopped trying to fight him, and eventually allowed himself to be held; Lyndon could feel how much the man needed it in the way Li quietly trembled in his arms, clutching at his coat. Words weren't necessary after that. He simply waited, patiently, for the wizard to calm down while he petted the smaller man's hair.

By the time Li drew away from him, there was a distinctly wet patch on Lyndon's coat from the wizard silently sobbing into it. "...Thank you," Li mumbled. His eyes were red and puffy, and the way he wiped at his eyes and nose with the back of his hand made him look slightly like a child. Lyndon wasn't sure whether he found it cute or terribly sad.

"Oh, nevermind that. It's your shift, isn't it?" Smiling his best charming smile, the rogue gave Li a pat on the shoulder. "Best get going and keep watch over our dear _completely mad_ _bastard_ of a friend."

The wizard snorted and smiled a little weakly back at him, and Lyndon knew that he'd gone past the point of no return when he realized he'd missed that smile while it was away.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo, last one I have written up for now! Comments and con-crit appreciated as always, I'll post more chapters as I write them. <333~


	6. All Good Things...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lyndon talks about his problems to a captive audience. His captive audience is not amused.
> 
> The group also finds a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one feels longer than its counterparts, but I like it all the same. It's been in my head for a couple of days now, and I've got the next couple of chapters plotted out, too. SPOILERS AHOY. 8D Enjoy~

Unfortunately, the demon hunter hadn't woken up by the time Haedrig's shift rolled round, or even by the time Lyndon's did. His fever had broken, but that was all the good that had come of his extended nap; the man was still completely out of it, and didn't look likely to wake anytime soon, not that Lyndon had taken the time to learn just what Ander's sleeping habits were.

Before his shift had come round, he'd gotten something to eat and had a nice, long rest himself. That had been a logistical knot of its own - was he expected to sleep in Li's bed now? Could he go back to his own without being on the receiving end of a sad puppy look from the wizard? - but Li hadn't objected when Lyndon had retired to his own quarters for the night, not even with so much as a hurt look.

Well, at least one thing was going right. He wasn't being asked to face his damned _feelings_. As far as talks Lyndon didn't look forward to, that was right near the top.

When it had come time for him to stand watch at the hunter's side, he'd been rested and fed and feeling fairly decent, but bloody hell, after the first hour he wasn't sure how his attention span could survive the next five of them. Stuck where he was, he couldn't do most of the things he would have done to pass the time, like bothering someone to roll dice with him or seeing how many things he could nick from Kormac before the Templar noticed. And with the past couple of days in mind, he couldn't exactly appeal to one of the many women who inhabited the keep to alleviate his boredom.

So what's a scoundrel to do when no other avenues of amusing himself are around but listening to himself talk? It wasn't like the demon hunter was awake to yell at him, and the man's pet ferrets didn't seem bothered, content to ignore Lyndon while they nestled in the sheets alongside their master (and if that tiny brown bat in the rafters had a complaint, he was going to ignore it - he had never seen eye to eye with that wretched rat with wings anyway).

"I'm starting to see why you avoid getting close to anyone, you know," he began, settling down in the chair next to the unresponsive demon hunter's bed. "Well, no, more that I avoided getting close to anyone before you people started dragging me along on your grand mission to save the world. Good work on that, by the way. Apparently you did so bloody well that Li is having an existential crisis, which I'm now having to deal with.

"Oh, not that I mind that. That is, not that I mind it _terribly_ , I do mind a bit when it cuts into the time I would spend with women. I'm not entirely sure he's done anything of a more _carnal_ nature before this - by the way, that _was_ what I was implying a moment ago, you did hear correctly - and I think you people are turning me _soft_ because I almost feel a bit bad for it. At least Li isn't the sort to have romantic notions about love and commitment, or at least I don't _think_ he is--"

"Lyndon." The demon hunter's voice startled Lyndon out of his train of thought and made him jump, the chair he was leaning back in almost falling over. He had to catch himself by grabbing onto the edge of a table. "Do you never shut up?"

The thief blanked on something to say for a moment. It felt like so long since he'd seen the man's eyes open, that he'd almost forgotten what an offputting silvery-grey they were. "You're awake!" he finally sputtered. "I--uh. Do you need anything? Do you want me to get Kormac? O-or I could find you a potion..."

Sitting up slowly, as if everything were a mess of aches and pains, Ander took in his surroundings, then Lyndon. Then the hunter sighed and brought a hand up to rub the remnants of sleep from his eyes. "How long was I unconscious?"

"Almost three days now." Lyndon answered immediately. "You've been mostly healed from the battle. We won, by the way. Er, I mean _you_ won. You two."

"Yes, I am aware." He couldn't help it; Ander was _intimidating_. Even in such a state, the hunter's very presence made him aware that Ander was dangerous. "That much I remember. Is the soulstone taken care of?"

Trust him to ask a difficult question! Even if he had been awake, Lyndon doubted that the man would have felt like celebrating their victory, with an attitude like that. "I... don't know, actually. There hasn't been a word from Tyrael, I suppose it just sort of slipped our minds. We were worried about other things."

Ander gave him a stern look that made him wither. "Worried about something other than the fate of a stone which has the souls of the seven Evils sealed within it?"

"To be perfectly honest, we were far more worried about you," Lyndon said meekly. His defense wasn't well-received; the hunter snarled and threw the covers aside, moving to get up. "Hold on, no, what do you think you're doing, get back in bed, you've only just woken up, at _least_ let me get the Templar--"

"It has been three days and yet you didn't think that Tyrael should have sent word by now?" Ander hissed, pushing past the hold Lyndon tried to get on his shoulders like it wasn't even there. He was on his feet before the thief could stop him, the ferrets following him.

"Yes, it's been _three days_ , think of how little time that is to beings who live for millenia! For all we know their council could still be _debating_ what to do with the stone." Lyndon got up to follow the hunter, mostly because he knew he'd be blamed if the man collapsed again while under his supervision.

Already, Ander was headed out the door and down the corridors to the great hall, and he wasn't about to let having to occasionally lean on a wall for support stop him. "No. Tyrael would have done something with it by now. I'm certain of it. Something has gone wrong."

"Are you sure you're not still feverish? Something doesn't always have to be going _wrong_ , you know. You're allowed a bit of _rest_ from time to time!" Lyndon insisted.

Then, when they reached the great hall, they found it deadly silent. A tall, broad figure was standing among a huddled group that included Li, Kormac, Eirena, Captain Haile, Haedrig and even Shen. All of them looked horribly grim, and Lyndon realized then that something was very, very wrong when they turned to look at him and the demon hunter as they entered.

Li spoke first, but his voice wavered. "Ander, it's good to see you're, well, up--"

The tall stranger interrupted him. "'Ander'? This is the demon hunter you spoke of?"

"Seeing as I'm the only one present at the moment, probably," Ander said dryly. "A bit pale for a paladin, aren't you?"

"If I were a paladin, but I'm not." The stranger seemed to take offense to the term, but he also seemed a bit used to it being used. "I am a crusader, but that matters little. I come with news from Westmarch. The aid of the men who helped save Bastion's Keep is desperately needed."

"Westmarch can usually handle its own problems, and often it's best to let it. Why does the city require our aid?"

"Death." The way the crusader said the word - the implications he made with nothing more than his tone and the haunted look in his eyes - gave Lyndon a chill. "Death itself has come to Westmarch."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ONWARD TO ACT 5.
> 
> Heavy, heavy spoilers from here on in, folks.


	7. Stuff of Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is not the way Lyndon remembered Westmarch being when he was there last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have not had the chance to play the Crusader as much as I'd like, nor have I finished act 5, because my sound processor died. It's totally possible that this'll be the last chapter that I post until the special ordered new sound card is in. I just can't play without sound. :

The Crusader's name was Han. Lyndon learned that after he'd listened to the man for a while, and he had to admit that it was a bit soothing. He'd thought that, between them, Li and Ander had the sorts of voices that would have women throwing themselves at them, but their newfound friend was in another league entirely. Honestly, he was rather envious. If he had a voice like that he'd never have to work at convincing women to come to bed with him again.

However, the words that were being pronounced by that voice were terribly unsettling.

Everyone had sat down around the table. Haedrig had gotten up just long enough to get the man a cup of some of their heavily rationed coffee - for as fast as he'd pushed himself to travel, he probably needed it - and then he'd found himself a seat, as well. Kormac was quietly fussing over Ander and making sure that he wasn't suffering from any ill-effects after his little bout, and to Lyndon's surprise, Ander let him. But it was entirely possible that this was largely due to being distracted by Han's description of the situation in Westmarch.

"I was already planning on coming here after hearing of the demons. The men of this keep would not send for aid without proper cause. Then the reapers came. It was entirely without warning." The Crusader gave the impression that he was a strong fellow who had seen much, but whatever was going on in Westmarch had left him looking quite stricken. "By the Light, I have never seen the like. Mens' souls torn from their bodies, their flesh withering in seconds as it might in a century. Monsters that resemble the seraphim of old, but could not have been, for their foul magicks turn the very air around them cold and lifeless.

"The city was already fractured along its usual noble lines when this began, two days past. There was no hope of mounting any sort of meaningful offensive with everything in such disarray; the reapers can only be held at bay, and only for so long." His eyes fell on each of them in turn, appealing to them. "You saved Bastion's Keep. I realize that the battle for it has taken its toll, but can you not do something for Westmarch as well?"

\---

Even the road into Westmarch was grim.

Their caravan had stopped a few miles off; the leaders of it had been willing to go no farther, so Ander, Kormac, Li, Lyndon, their new companion Han, and Eirena seperated from Shen and Haedrig to clear a way into the city; it was agreed that neither of them could set up shop adequately until a safe haven was found for them to do so, so they stayed behind.

Lyndon couldn't quite make out what the other two pairs were chatting about. Or maybe they weren't speaking at all - who knew, really? He wouldn't blame them if they weren't. There was an oppressive atmosphere of something being terribly wrong, even on the outskirts of the city. The air had an unnatural chill about it, just as Han had said. Even Li wasn't saying much; the wizard's mood had been dark ever since they'd left the Keep.

The first reapers took them slightly by surprise, and if they hadn't been on edge to begin with, they mightn't have survived for the attack's suddenness, but their hands were already on their respective weapons and spells had been held at the ready for as long as they'd been on foot. That was about when they learned they were fighting something that was completely different from what they'd fought before.

Unenchanted bolts flew straight through insubstantial bodies. Waves of force merely dispersed them for a time, before they would reform again and attack from behind. Eirena and Han got the first kills, being more inclined toward magic, but Lyndon had to stick close to Li while he fumbled for his enchanted bolts, and out of the corner of his eye he could see that Kormac was actually the one being defended by Ander for once instead of the other way around, considering the hunter's dark magic was far more effective than the templar's spear.

After that, they stuck quite a bit closer together as a group, with Eirena and Han bringing up the rear to prevent an ambush. The six of them were a clump of armor, spells, projectiles and sharp edges moving as one by the time they'd gotten to the back entrance through the sewers, and had encountered a seventh group member - gods, it was turning into a regular _party_ , wasn't it - who called himself a Horadrim named Lorath.

Being a Horadrim, even one sent to give them word from Tyrael, did not change the fact that he was quickly shunted to being the absolute middle of their group formation for the sake of not getting his pitifully-armored arse murdered by angels. He was just one more thing that no one wanted to think about as they battled their way to the chapel that the refugees were hiding in.

When they got there, the situation was no better. One of the more powerful seraphim was waiting for them there, sucking the souls out of helpless civilians. Almost too powerful. Or maybe they were just that exhausted, or disheartened, or clumsy in their new set-up. Lyndon didn't know. He just knew that, in the attempt to avoid one spell, he got sent flying by another, into a pew that splintered into pieces with the impact. And things like that hadn't happened since Caldeum. Then he saw Li slam into a pillar with a choked cry of pain, and he _knew_ that just didn't happen with your average enemy.

They did win the fight _eventually_ , but by the skin of their teeth, and both Han and Kormac had their hands full healing everyone else as well as themselves by the end of it. Han, for his part, had at least earned his status as one of the group in the end with a flurry of hammers made entirely of Light, alongside one of Ander's rocket-laden barrages of rapid fire. Tyrael and some general had joined them, but Lyndon was only half-listening by that point to their conversation with the group about the Black Soulstone.

For the first time since New Tristram, Lyndon was honestly considering leaving it all and running home.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I know this one's sloppy, I'm gonna say straight-up that I'm welcoming any con-crit y'all can give. It might be something I already know about, but if you think it might help, lemme know about it. It'll probably get edited later on, and every bit helps.


	8. A Shift in Priorities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lyndon has tough decisions to make. Westmarch is tough on everyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally supposed to be the first half of one chapter, but I'm gonna end up splitting it into two since I have so much material to work with. This fic is gonna run long, at this rate.
> 
> Thanks to Tiger for helping me get screenies and being patient with me while I did so, and for proofreading when I remember to send things to her because I'm a spaz and I forget sometimes.

"Westmarch is a mess and I'm ready for a stiff drink... or five."

"Wait until we are _done_."

"But you always take so _long_!"

Lyndon thought that making a joke might get the wizard to laugh. Just a little, just once. He needed to see that smile, even if it was just for a moment; things had been looking steadily more grim ever since they'd left for Westmarch, and it hadn't gotten better after they'd arrived. More than anything, the thief desperately needed some sort of pick-me-up. But Li didn't smile, and he didn't laugh. He just kept going.

Their little group had split into three pairs. Kormac and Ander had gone together as they usually did, and Lyndon had gone with Li out of habit, which had left Han and Eirena as the third group by default. That was fine, as far as Lyndon was concerned. Balance and all that. Didn't want any of the pairs being too heavy on one thing and too light on another. Except that left the two of them without any healing, and with nothing to take the blows aside from Li's mirror images. Sure, they did the job in a pinch, but smarter reapers had taken to flat-out ignoring the blasted things.

Damn. He was thinking too much. He needed to find something else to occupy his mind, or he was going to think himself into a funk and end up being useless. Bad enough that he was the only mundane one in the group, with less magic to him in his whole being than Li had in a bit of fingernail clipping; he shuddered to think what might happen if he was caught alone, sometimes. But it would be _so_ much worse if he was caught alone and distracted by his own morbid thoughts.

Turns out, he was startled out of his own morbid thoughts by Li's voice. "I'm returning to town," the wizard announced, clearing his throat to indicate that Lyndon should follow.

"Hm? Why's that? You haven't picked up that much yet, have you?" Lyndon brought out a scroll from his coat and unfurled it.

Li just sort of wilted, pausing mid-cast to pull aside a corner of his robe. The slots he'd had sewn into the lining for potions were all empty, and Lyndon winced.

He wasn't the only one who had it hard. "I hadn't realized. Let's go, then."

\---

Li had briefly gone back to speak to the general outside the cathedral, after stocking up on potions. Like usual, Lyndon followed him, although he didn't expect to learn much. He wasn't really listening when Li took a moment to talk to Tyrael, who seemed to have not realized that being mortal hurts - earlier Lyndon had caught half a conversation where his pet Horadrim had scolded him for forgetting to eat _again_ , as if this were a regular thing with the former angel - but then something caught his attention that he _had_ to listen to.

"Why haven't the other cities of Westmarch sent reinforcements? Bramwell? Kingsport? What are they waiting for?" The wizard sounded irritated, and rightly so, Lyndon thought. He didn't think the politics in the area had gotten _that_ bad since he'd left.

What the general had to say made his blood run cold. "Have you not heard? Cities everywhere are under attack. No place is safe."

The thief's head snapped up. "What did you just say...? _Kingsport_?" His voice threatened to fail him.

Tyrael spoke up to confirm it. "Yes, Malthael strikes all across Sanctuary."

Lyndon saw the wizard with a rare look about him, like he'd been slapped. "I... did not know. That's... disturbing," Li said; he was at a loss for anything other than understatement, apparently.

 _My brother_ , Lyndon thought. Oh, Akarat, please, not Edlin.

He must have said something out loud, because the next thing he knew, Li had put a hand on his shoulder and given it a squeeze. Tyrael had an odd sort of frown like he was trying to figure out how his sympathy reflex worked, and General Torion even seemed a little apologetic.

Having all of them stare at him like that was almost stifling, like he was being smothered by their sympathy and understanding. Worse, like he was already expected to _grieve_. Like it was already a sure thing that Edlin was dead and that there was no hope for him--

Lyndon turned on his heel and walked quietly back to where the merchants were.

\---

The soul crucibles were the straw that broke the proverbial packbeast's back, for Lyndon. He kept quiet until then, like a good follower, not saying a word until it was necessary, but after they fought that first maiden-reaper- _thing_ , surrounded by corpses that reeked so horribly it made him dizzy, and were piled so high that the street was no longer visible... well. He could take it, sure. He'd pretty much been to Hell.

But Edlin hadn't. And he couldn't take it. Gods, he'd seen what these... _abominations_ did to people, watched them suck the souls out of nobles, peasants, armed and armored guards--

Lyndon swallowed heavily and took a deep breath to fight back a sudden wave of nausea, then turned to the wizard, waiting for him to be done with speaking to that mystic-woman they'd found. He didn't expect Li to initiate the conversation - not in his current melancholy, he wouldn't - so he started it himself.

"There's no easy way to say this, but I have to leave. And I won't be returning."

It wasn't what Li needed to hear. If Lyndon didn't know better, he would say the look on the man's face was akin to heartbreak. Li began to say something, but Lyndon shook his head and held up a hand to stop him, because he didn't want to hear it; if he did, he might be convinced to stay.

"I'm serious. My brother's imprisoned in Kingsport with no way to defend himself, and I _must_ free him." When had his tone turned imploring? This was harder than he'd thought it would be.

Li swallowed thickly, forcing himself to stand a little straighter for the sake of appearances even though he still looked as if he might break down, and possibly even worse than he had done back in the keep. Frankly, Lyndon felt like he'd just kicked a puppy. "...If you go out there alone, you'll die before you even get to Kingsport."

A terrible reason if he'd ever heard one, especially coming from the wizard. Yet a small part of him was glad for anything that might keep him at the man's side. He pushed that thought to the back of his mind and sighed, rubbing at his temples. "All right, I'll stay for as long as I can," he relented, "but only because I know how much you need me."

The relief that Li felt upon hearing that was blatantly obvious from the way he just _sagged_ , and for a moment, Lyndon got to see that smile. It was weak, it was faint, but it was there.

And he was putting that tiny, weak smile ahead of Edlin's life in terms of importance.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dialogue is from ingame, I'm just adding to it. Fudged a little on the "I have to go" dealie with Li's lines since I had demon hunter screenies of that one, not wizard ones, and the conversation with Tyrael and the General is slightly out of order since ingame, Lyndon's lines come at the end of the convo, but otherwise it's almost verbatim.


	9. A Hard Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ander gets vengeance. Li gets black holes. Lyndon...gets to watch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another one that wasn't supposed to run as long as it did. I wasn't even originally planning to write out the entire fight, but I needed the practice and it came out okay, so eh. /shrug.
> 
> There's another chapter already written up, but my proofreader Tiger went to bed before I could finish it and send it to her. AW WELL. It'll be up tomorrow.

All of them were starting to get tired. Haedrig, Tyrael, and Shen were the lucky ones, getting to hang back and offer advice or armor repairs, but the six of them that were out in the city trying to save it probably hadn't gotten more than twenty-four hours sleep in the past two days, if one were to total it between them. Exhaustion was settling in, even for the hardiest of their little band of misfits; by the time they'd reached the second soul crucible and the maiden that guarded it, even Ander was weary enough to agree that they should face it together.

The mystic woman who'd been tagging along found a safe corner from which to watch the proceedings on their approach. Lyndon found himself wanting to join her, for a moment. He'd given up trying to step over the bodies or avoid walking on them because of how high they'd been piled, and it only got worse the closer they got. For a while he'd spied the Han bending down occasionally to close eyes and murmur prayers, but the man had long since stopped bothering.

Gods, when even a _paladin_ was giving up on treating the dead as individuals rather than statistics... Lyndon couldn't help feeling a little bit ill, and had to force himself to stop trying to scan the faces of the dead for features that he recognized so that he could keep going.

The alleyway opened up into a courtyard, lit by an eerie white-blue glow. As they got to the corpse-packed stairwell, Lyndon squinted to make out where the light was coming from.

Oh, _Akarat_. They'd taken too long, he realized as fear tightened its grip on him. The crucible in the cathedral had been hardly anything, barely the size of one of Li's frozen orbs, and the other one that they'd actually gone looking for had only been about as big as a room. But the one before them now would have been large enough to swallow a noble's entire estate whole, and it dwarfed the maiden that guarded it.

Lyndon let go of a slow, unsteady breath to calm himself and pulled out his crossbow, along with a few enchanted bolts from his quiver. _Well_. Now or never, really. The reapers had finally noticed them, and the ones he could recognize as lighter infantry sorts had already begun closing in on them. He allowed himself a glance over at Li, then looked to Ander - their unofficial leader - to nod quickly as an indication that he was ready.

The demon hunter nodded back, turned to the reapers, and roared; taking that as a signal, the group flew into action. Dark energy and enchanted bolts flew, Crusader and Templar charged into the fray, Wizard and Enchantress let loose a flurry of vicious spells, and the reapers' inhuman, ear-splitting death wails cut the air.

\---

For just a few minutes, it seemed like they could honestly win without taking any losses themselves. They started to get a bit more confident and pushed forward, through enemy lines and towards the maiden guarding the crucible.

Then, one of the big bruiser-Reapers caught Kormac off-guard, knocking him up into the air like a child's doll, followed by a terrible _crunch_ of plate and bone when it slammed him back down into the corpse-strewn ground.

"Kormac!" came an almost-scream of dismay and concern from Eirena over the din of battle, and even the thief found himself snarling a little - hey, he was the only one who was allowed to hit Kormac around here, wasn't he - but any further thoughts, such as whether or not the bones he'd heard snapping like twigs were the templar's own, were cut off by a blood-curdling howl from off to the side. He chanced turning his head to see what the noise was, and was greeted by the sight of the embodiment of vengeance itself.

He'd seen Li attempt what he called 'archon form' a few times, usually resulting in a pile of half-disintegrated corpses dusted with a faintly glowing residue of arcane something-or-other. What Ander was doing - for it was definitely Ander, he saw the outline of twin crossbows through the seething red-black smoke - was a bit like that, except instead of arcane magic, Lyndon could only assume that the man had found a way to weaponize pure _hatred_ somehow.

Whatever it was, Ander managed to cut through the rest of the reapers' equivalent of ground troops in fairly short order, and his assault made for an excellent distraction so that Eirena could conjure a shield around Kormac and Han could divert his attention long enough to rush over and make sure the templar was still breathing. Soon only the maiden herself was left, and without her forces to protect her, she turned away from the crucible and faced the demon hunter.

A few more of the vicious, vengeance-laden bolts sliced through the air and clipped her, but after that, Ander's energy was spent. Lyndon saw the man stagger, and broke into a run; he got to the hunter's side just as the last of the dark power was fading, and managed to catch him by the shoulders before he could lose his footing on the uneven ground.

Damn it all, what was Li even _doing_ , he thought as the maiden drew energy from the soul crucible and readied an attack. He couldn't load or aim his crossbow, not supporting Ander's weight as he was. Was he really about to die to a _lackey_ , of all things? After fighting the Lords of Hell and _winning_?

Was he really going to die before he got the chance to see Edlin again?

A point of swirling, black _nothingness_ formed in the air by the maiden. A small point, at first, but it grew. The reaper noticed it, and turned her hooded head to stare at it. Then Lyndon heard her scream, and somehow that point of blackness started to _suck her toward it_. It was like watching dirty water go down a drainpipe, except a thousand times more horrible; the more _stuff_ the impossible hole in the universe took in, the bigger it got, and the bigger it was, the more it drew in. Lyndon found himself backing away instinctively. He almost pitied the reaper. That didn't look pleasant... or survivable.

Then, someone - and the thief had a good guess as to _who_ \- threw a swirling orb of arcane energy at the quickly expanding black mass, and he watched in awe as it collapsed in on itself with a sound like... well, if he were asked to describe it, he'd probably say it was like what you might get if the sound of a harsh thunderclap were turned backward. The remains of the maiden fell to the ground in a twisted, impossibly twined lump of metal and cloth, though they were so badly mangled that neither the cloth nor the metal looked like itself anymore; the crucible's shield dissipated without its master being alive to maintain it, and another arcane orb sailed through the air towards it to give it the last impetus it needed for the souls within it to be freed from their confines.

As the air cleared, Li was the only one still _standing_ , in spite of being a mess of torn, dirty robes and mussed hair. It occurred to Lyndon then that when they'd found that other crucible, the maiden had been summoning up new reapers from fresh piles of corpses, and that on their way to this one, Li had been the only one who hadn't stopped looking for them. _Ah_. That was probably why there had been more of a delay in cutting through the reapers' numbers this time, wasn't it?

Li caught his eyes and straightened in spite of obvious exhaustion, giving Lyndon a smile. He smiled back for lack of a better response.

_Finally_ , he thought. If Li was able to smile honestly again, that meant the wizard was probably in a good enough state for Lyndon to be able to leave and get his brother to safety without shattering the poor man.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wizards are OP, yo.


	10. A Family Matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Up till now, Lyndon thought he knew Death fairly well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The game won't let you do a character's quest once you've already done it once, so all my screenies ended up being from my Demon Hunter's playthrough. As such, I put less focus on Li's dialogue. HOWEVER, Lyndon's is almost word-for-word, as much as I can make it.
> 
> Poor bby.

Han had taken a blow to the head that dented his bucket-like helmet, and his shield arm was badly bruised. Eirena had twisted an ankle trying to navigate the corpses littering the ground in her dainty boots, and her hands and forehead were scraped from stumbling because of it. Ander was near-comatose... again. Kormac was insisting that three broken ribs, two cracked ones and a fractured collarbone were completely manageable. Li was scuffed and bruised, but for the most part he was barely injured.

Lyndon was almost completely unharmed. Damage to his coat didn't count; that sort of thing was far more easily patched than broken bones. And honestly, he felt rather bad about coming out of the battle unscathed, no matter how much he told himself it was a matter of good luck, or that it would make it easier to save Edlin after he left.

Oh, right. He should probably tell Li that he was going, shouldn't he? Even if that _thing_ they'd had together wasn't anything more than a one night stand, as his friend, the wizard deserved a bit better than him just running off without so much as another word. In fact, even ignoring their little affair _completely_ , Lyndon might even go so far as to say that Li was his _best_ friend, and had been for quite some time. With that in mind, the mage _definitely_ deserved at least some forewarning.

Nodding to himself, Lyndon turned and headed for the cathedral, where Lorath was helping a mildly concussed Han with healing everyone. Poor Lorath didn't have all that much talent, or practice, but the crusader was talking him through it when he wasn't getting impatient and taking over completely. Kormac was sitting up and trying to look tough in spite of looking like tenderized meat underneath the bandages holding his barely-healed ribs together; every time he tried to stand up, Eirena would push him back down and scold him for trying. Ander was laid out on one of the few undamaged pews, feverish and fading in and out of consciousness, with their new friend, the mystic woman, trying to feed him some sort of broth.

It took him a bit longer to spot Li, standing on a crumbled heap of what used to be a wall and staring out over the city. As he approached, the wizard heard him and caught his eye; Lyndon knew from the look on the man's face that Li had already guessed what he was going to say, and the thief's resolve faltered a little.

"It's... time for me to go," he said, slightly hesitant. He sucked in a breath and continued, pointedly ignoring that everyone in earshot was staring. "My brother will die in the Kingsport dungeons if I don't act now."

Li looked like he was going to say something to that, but a nearby guard with bandages wound around his head piped up before the wizard got the chance. "A _Kingsport_ prisoner, you say? Pfah, those poor devils were all transported to our cells in Westmarch last week." Lyndon gawked at the guard, who continued, "...but we haven't heard from the garrison since the attacks started."

"Edlin..." he whispered, disbelieving. The Westmarch cells? Oh, gods, if the reapers had cleared those out--

Lyndon turned back to the wizard. "I have to find him." After a quick internal debate, he added a little weakly, "--will you help me, my friend?"

A momentary expression of shock crossed Li's features, and was replaced a second later with determination, along with a trace of concern. The wizard stepped down from the pile of rubble, and put his hand on Lyndon's shoulder - albeit a little hesitantly - to give it a gentle squeeze. He nodded, and an attempt at a reassuring smile touched his face--

Without warning, a massive explosion went off, and the entire cathedral shook down to its foundations. A few bits of roof that were still damaged from before caved in on them; Eirena rushed to put up a dome-like shield so that no one could be killed by falling debris, and Li was quick to disintigrate the bits that were large enough to do anyone harm.

"What in the _hells_ was that?" the wizard asked of no one in particular, sounding irritated. He stormed over back to the hole in the wall to peer outside, and Lyndon followed.

"It's Urzael," their Vecin mystic said. Tyrael burst into the cathedral, and confirmed that Urzael was attacking the city by _bellowing_ it in a manner that suggested he had no indoor voice. Some discussion ensued, and glances were cast towards the more incapacitated members of their group. It was revealed that Urzael was probably in Korelan's Tower, and the mystic woman whose name slipped Lyndon's mind felt the need to inform them that the insane angel was going to be quite _rude_ , for what seemed to be no reason at all.

It looked for a minute like Lyndon was going to have to put Edlin aside _again_ , and much as he hated it, he would have been willing. Had Li asked it of him, he would have run off with him to kill more of those wretched reapers. But, incredibly, the wizard didn't ask it of him. Instead, Li turned away from the city - which was now ablaze - and looked him in the eye gravely.

"The dungeons first, but we need to be quick about it," he said in a low, serious tone.

Lyndon didn't need to be told twice.

\---

It took some careful navigating of the sewers to get to the Westmarch dungeons, but Lyndon knew where they were from, well, _experience_. The thief took the uneven old stairs two at a time, throwing caution to the proverbial wind and only slowing down when they got to the guard station. He was relieved to see that it was manned.

"Right, then, this is where they're holding Edlin," he said, turning to Li briefly. "Let me do the talking." The wizard nodded, understanding, and Lyndon cleared his throat before approaching.

He stopped in his tracks when the guard began chuckling. His breath caught in his throat, and he felt Li's hand on his sleeve. "Wait, something isn't right..."

"Looking for your brother, Lyndon?" the guard asked, sounding smug. Oh. _Oh, gods_.

That wasn't a guard. "Damn it all--" He reached for his crossbow; the 'guard' drew a couple of deadly-looking serrated daggers.

"The thieves' guild always finds who it's looking for~" the 'guard' said in a taunting singsong sort of voice. As he lunged, Lyndon took aim and put a bolt through his eye. Then the nearby cells opened up around them, and other men emerged from them. Men with knives. Men that Lyndon recognized from Kingsport, as well as other places.

They attacked, but angry, untrained rabble with knives really didn't stand a chance against the rogue's unforgiving bolts, let alone Li's magic. "The thieves' guild has infiltrated the _entire_ dungeon...?" For _me_ , he almost added, but he'd seen them do far worse for lesser vendettas, so the disbelief was short-lived. It didn't take long for it to give way for absolute _horror_.

Lyndon quickly snatched up a key from the fake guard's corpse and set off down the hall at a run.

It didn't matter that the resistance they were met with was, in comparison to what they'd been fighting recently, absolutely _paltry_. Even if he could put at least two bolts into every would-be ambusher that he passed before they'd had the chance to so much as draw their weapons, Edlin was still defenseless against whatever these bastards might do. They could hurt, maim, and torture his brother all they liked. They probably _had_.

The thick, heavy weight of dread that settled in his gut did nothing to slow him down. "Come _on_! Hurry!" he shouted back to Li, whom he'd outpaced significantly, with a bit more desperation than he'd intended.

A voice called out from up ahead, goading him; "You can't hide behind your friend, Lyndon...~" He followed it to its source, and sent a bolt through that source's throat when he caught up with it, truncating what might have been another taunt with an unintelligible gurgling noise.

Panic was closing in on him. He backtracked when he reached a dead end, frantically searching the cells he'd passed for signs of his brother. Li caught up to him, but went largely ignored; Lyndon was far, _far_ too busy to notice him right then. So many cells. Edlin _had_ to be around here somewhere--

It felt for a split second like his heart had stopped when he caught sight of a body, curled on its side, in one of the cells. " _Edlin_!" Fumbling with the key, he unlocked the door with shaking hands and fell to his knees at his brother's side, taking him by the shoulder and shaking him.

Edlin didn't move.

_No, no no **no**_... Lyndon turned his brother over and was met with the cold, dead-eyed stare of a corpse. "He's..." He couldn't bring himself to say it. On the edge of his awareness, he knew that Li was saying something, but it just sounded like background noise. _Dead_. His brother was dead. Gone. He would never see Edlin alive again.

Quietly, he lifted his hand and closed his brother's eyes. It took a few seconds before he trusted his voice enough to speak again, but he did speak; he felt as if he should say _something_. "I never should have joined the guild. He told me, but I wouldn't listen..."

He was dimly aware of Li telling him that it wasn't his fault as he lowered his hand to his brother's chest, but he was much _more_ cognisant of his fingers finding the edge of a hilt. When he glanced down, he saw that it was attatched to a blade that was buried in Edlin's chest, coated in long-since-dried blood. "...That dagger looks _very_ familiar," he said, half to himself. It took him a little bit of effort - emotional, not physical - to pull it out and examine it. It was a Kingsport blade, definitely, but _whose_...

"Then take it with you, but please, we need to _go,_ " he heard Li say. When he finally tore his eyes away, the wizard was already conjuring up a portal back to the survivors' enclave.

Lyndon nodded wordlessly, tucked the dagger into his coat, and stood up to follow him.

 


	11. Tripping Over The Details

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lyndon, you idiot.

No one was looking him in the eye when they stepped through the portal back into the enclave. After all the fuss he'd made, him coming back with just Li must have been a clear sign to everyone that the attempted rescue had failed. Now the whole _city_ was on fire, just because they'd wasted time with trying to save one man. What sorts of heroes did _that_ , eh?

Naturally, they were the only two in decent enough shape to continue reaper-hunting. Han offered, but Li made him stay behind to tend to the others; the part of Lyndon's mind that wasn't paralyzed with grief guessed that this was also partly due to the man having been concussed before. The crusader didn't try to argue his point, but Lyndon secretly wanted the taller man to do so, just so that he'd have an excuse to stay behind and have some alone-time with a nice bottle of brandy.

They tried to waste as little time as possible stocking up on ammo and potions before they went, and the thief felt an odd sense of detachment from his actions as they did. It was like a more practical part of his mind had taken over to let the rest of him retreat into a quiet, dark corner to do as little thinking as possible about anything. Probably for the best, he decided as they headed for the gate that led to the more affluent parts of town.

Just before they reached it, though, Li just _had_ to turn to him and bring him back to reality. Lyndon only half-noticed how hesitant the wizard looked, and it wasn't the part of him that would've cared about such things that did the noticing. "Are... Are you all right to keep going, Lyndon?"

No, I'm not. "I'm fine," he responded curtly.

Li drew his teeth over his lower lip and nodded, and that was all that was said on the matter.

\---

On the way there, Lyndon was glad for his ability to retreat into himself, because the corpses were no less numerous than they had been in the streets downtown. The reapers were getting more desperate to stop them, and the three apparently female ones that had helped start the fires alongside their master were just as determined to get in the way as their subordinates. It didn't matter. That black hole thing of Li's crushed them just like it had done with the other maidens.

Were he in any other mood, he would've said something about it. He would have asked where or how he'd learned it, or made a comment about how he'd have to be more careful because his coat nearly got caught in the last one. Li must have caught on to how quiet he'd gotten, because the mage had stopped trying to converse with him or do flashy things to get his attention. The two of them were all business, and with the methodical way they were treating the task at hand, the reapers in their way might as well have been just a stack of documents that needed filling out.

It felt like no time at all had passed as they reached the tower, and Lyndon didn't feel the least bit nervous as they climbed the steps that led up to the top. Usually, big fights gave him butterflies; sometimes it got so bad that it looped back into giddy disbelief that he was actually getting to do what he was doing. It was comparable to the rush he got whenever he pulled off an act of particularly skilled thievery, except more pronounced; Li had explained to him once that it was an adrenaline high, and that in a fight it was actually a good thing.

When they actually got to see Urzael, he realized why that might be. An adrenaline rush was infinitely preferable to absolute terror.

The cold, logical part of his mind that he'd been running on for a while simply couldn't compute what he might be seeing, and as result it simply crumbled. The mad angel before them had a weapon that, for all intents and purposes, closely resembled one of the black powder cannons he'd seen on ships, except Urzael was hefting it with his bare hands. And when the reaper shifted the barrel of it in his massive hands, it shifted from glowing ominously with the usual eerie blue that all the reapers wielded to being on _fire_ with a rush of sound that was comparable to a small forest going up in flames.

For all the things Lyndon had seen, he'd never seen anything like _that_ , and he was rooted to the spot with fear for a few precious seconds. Li charged in unflinchingly, and it took the first few _fwoosh_ es of his spells being cast to finally snap the rogue out of it and get him to remember that he was supposed to be helping to kill the thing. He fumbled for a bolt to load into his crossbow and tried to ignore the fact that the angel's cannon-thing was so ridiculously loud that just a couple of shots had his ears ringing.

He wasn't quite sure whether it was his bolt or one of Li's spells that penetrated Urzael's seemingly thick hide enough to piss the angel off, but the next thing he heard was a painfully loud roar, before he saw the angel turn in his direction with the cannon. Lyndon tried to roll to the side to dodge - though he wasn't nearly as good at it as the demon hunter was - and the shot only just missed him, having come close enough to singe his coat on the way by. It hit a support beam behind him, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he started to load the next bolt into his crossbow.

Then he heard a creaking, groaning sound from above him as the roof gave way, followed by a sharp pain just prior to everything going black.

\---

"Lyndon! _Lyndon!_ " Someone was shouting at him, shaking him, but the odd way it sounded made Lyndon feel like he was underwater. His awareness of things was off in that particular way it tended to be after being hit over the head with the leg of a chair in a tavern brawl. He sucked in a sudden, hissing breath as his injuries made their presence known; yep, he'd taken a blow to the head, all right. He could feel a trickle of something wet and slightly tacky down the side of his face, which he assumed was blood, and his head was _throbbing_.

And that was _before_ Li - still sparking and glowing a bit from having used his Archon form, it seemed - decided to pull Lyndon's upper body into his arms and give the rogue a painfully tight hug, causing him to cry out in pain as fractured bones shifted.

The wizard gasped when he realized his error and immediately loosened his embrace, letting Lyndon back down as gently as he could. "Sorry, I didn't-- gods, I wasn't thinking, are you all right?"

"Gnh," Lyndon responded oh-so-intelligently, tentatively lifting his arms up and wincing as it sent another stab of pain through him. Shoulder, or collar? Didn't feel dislocated, but it didn't feel like any of his bones had snapped like twigs, either. "Been better."

"Can you stand? Should I get Kormac, o-or Han..." As the last of his Archon magic faded, Lyndon could see that the wizard's clothes were torn and burnt in places, that there was a burn across one cheek where something grazed him, his hair was falling messily in front of his face and his gloves had been ripped and seared clean through, leaving his palms and fingers rough and raw.

Had Li pulled away the debris _himself_? Oh, that stubborn little fool. "I'll be all right," Lyndon insisted, sitting up slowly with some difficulty. Just getting himself upright made him dizzy and lightheaded, even if he ignored how much it hurt to move. When Li moved to support him, he was secretly glad for it, because he wasn't sure he could stand on his own otherwise.

But at the same time, he felt awful for needing it, even as the mage helped him through a portal back to the enclave. The whole time that he was having to be assisted, with Han bounding over to check him, and then the both of them bringing him over to the cathedral's front steps and helping ease him down onto them, full of comforting words he didn't listen to... all the while, he was just stewing in his own thoughts.

So much for detachment from the situation. When Han was finished with him, the crusader then turned to Li, but he was waved dismissively away. Oh, _gods_ , Li wanted to _talk_ about it, didn't he, Lyndon thought miserably when his head had finished with being all swimmy. He was proven right when, as the crusader wandered off, Li straightened his robe out and sat down next to the thief, putting an arm around his shoulders.

The wizard took a deep breath and seemed to think on what to say. "...This isn't _your_ fault, Lyndon. You must not blame yourself."

Lyndon rolled his eyes and shrugged the wizard's arm away. He still thought that this was about _Edlin_? "What do you want me to say...?" he asked, turning his head to look Li in the eye. "That I wish he'd never known me? That I wish he'd had a brother who didn't _fail_ him?"

Li pulled his gaze away from Lyndon's, looking uncomfortable. Still, he pressed on. "You need to let go of your grief. It will do nothing but prey on your mind."

"And I suppose the _mightiest hero_ in all the land knows _just_ how to help, eh?" Lyndon snorted, shaking his head. "No... no, this is something _you_ can't understand."

He took a sadistic, bitter sort of comfort in the way Li flinched away from him. He knew the wizard's sore points; if he had to use them to get the man to keep his distance, then so be it. Right then, he just wanted to be alone.

\---

Later on that night, Eirena came up to try and talk to him. "Kingsport has been attacked as well. Did you know anyone who perished there?" she asked, starting the conversation with her usual lack of tact. He couldn't quite look at her, and made an effort to look interested in his dinner - a cobbled together stew cooked up by Myriam - as an excuse.

"...Yes," he finally said after a while, in a voice barely above a whisper.

The enchantress seemed shocked, and possibly a little regretful about asking. "...How have you hidden your grief so well?"

Lyndon sighed deeply, and set his stew down. "Because I _have_ to."

She stopped trying to keep the conversation going after that.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Healing magic always feels a bit like a mystical plot-reset button, but I'm fine with using and abusing it to keep characters *in the story*. My rules are as follows:  
> Basic healing magic applies to actual injuries only, not infections or sickness.  
> Healing cannot fix that you have not eaten.  
> Healing cannot fix that you have not slept.  
> Healing cannot revive the dead.  
> Healing cannot fix actual mental disabilities, pre-existing conditions, or get rid of existing scars. 
> 
> BASICALLY, if you ain't straight-up dead, or diseased, you're okay if you've got both a pet Templar and a Crusader along with you. :3


	12. A Brief Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Boggits, crusaders, and a quick break from the difficult bits of adventuring that require thinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This didn't take long to whip up. It's mostly dialogue and it establishes the Crusader pretty well without me having to write even more fics from other points of view. 
> 
> If Lyndon seems a bit thick, it's because he is.

When the Demon Hunter came to and wanted to come with them to fight Adria in the blood marsh, the entirety of the group responded with a resounding "no". It took Kormac, Eirena and Haedrig working together to stop him, and that was after he'd gotten to his feet and quite promptly fallen over... twice. Then Li gave him some sort of very stern talking-to that Lyndon was sadly not around to see, and Ander had supposedly given up around that point.

That was what Han told him, anyway, as he, the crusader, the little wizard and Lorath of all people trudged through the dreary, unpleasant-smelling bog. Originally they wouldn't have let Lyndon go, either, but Li relented, citing that "Lyndon was as close to Leah as any of us were", and as a result, he deserved to be there when it came time to avenge her.

Since Lyndon still wasn't really that keen on being in the wizard's vicinity, he decided to hang back with the crusader. This led to the discovery of two new things that he hadn't known previously.

First, that Han liked to talk almost as much as Lyndon did.

Second, that Han was as much of a troublemaker as Li could be.

It started when they came up against a literal stone wall, and after defeating a small army of the native boggits, Lorath was explaining that the place they were in was built by Nephalem, and how nothing happened when he went near things. Han, getting bored by the conversation, decided to go up to the wall to examine it. "So I suppose it would be a good thing we just so happen to have a Nephalem at hand, wouldn't it..." he began, leaning against the wall.

Then the runes etched into the wall in question suddenly lit up with a blue glow, and with a shifting, scraping noise that was probably stone grinding against stone, the wall slid downward and out of their way.

"...Two, apparently," Lorath grumbled.

Li sighed and facepalmed. "At least this means I don't have to do _all_ the work myself."

"If that was _work_ , then it's no wonder you're built like a handful of twigs sticking out of a pudding," the crusader quipped. Li threw an arcane missile at him, which he blocked with his shield.

That was how their work began, and Lyndon was already starting to feel a little better.

Their job was supposed to be to find these pedestal-things to indicate which of a set of caves would be the correct one to find Adria in, because the rest were false positives that would lead to a whole lot of nothing with some angry ghosts thrown in. The pedestals were scattered throughout the marsh, and Li suggested that they split into two pairs, with one nephalem to each. Obviously, the wizard expected Lyndon to go with him; he looked surprised and a bit hurt when the thief decided to go with Han instead.

Yes, Lyndon knew he was being petty and childish, but he just didn't want to deal with Li assuming that all his troubles stemmed from his brother being dead. The wizard probably wouldn't understand even if he _did_ try to explain the full extent of it. So he'd just throw himself into this and give himself time to heal (and drink) until it no longer bothered him.

Han was making it easy to think about other things, anyway. "I must confess, for all the strength your friend Ander supposedly posesses, I've seen very little of it," the crusader began, wiping slain boggit casually off of his heavy plate armor and leaving a smear of gore.

"Oh, our demon hunter is a force of nature when he's not exhausted," Lyndon assured him. "That _vengeance_ thing he did was just one example. Before you arrived at the Keep, he'd been comatose for three days after having not slept and barely eaten for just over a week."

"Hah! Well, he sounds determined enough, I will give him that." Han swung his massive flail at a makeshift tower that the boggits had constructed out of sticks, sending it crashing to the ground. All of the remaining boggits were either shot or smashed as they tried to flee, squealing, from the carnage. "But how does one come to _be_ a 'force of nature', as you put it?"

"In his case?" Lyndon bent to kick open, and inspect the contents of, a crude clay jar. A ring gleamed at him from its shattered remains, which he picked up and pocketed. "All manner of unpleasant and unfortunate circumstances. I believe the way he put it is something like 'demon hunters are survivors'. Kormac would know more than I would."

"Kormac? That's surprising."

"Oh, they're thick as proverbial _thieves_ , those two. If the idiot weren't so obviously _smitten_ with Eirena, then people would probably talk."

"What, like they do with you and our vertically challenged wizard?"

Lyndon blinked. "...I suppose so. Do they _really_?"

"To be fair, it was more obvious back at Bastion's Keep when I found you all."

"Well, yes, it _would_ have been."

"He _does_ worry over you, from what I've gathered."

"About as much as a noblewoman might worry about her small, yappy dog, really."

"No, more like when that demon hunter friend of yours had a fit over the Templar having fallen in battle." They came to a pedestal, and the crusader placed his hand on the orb at the top to activate the device. One of the runes at its base stopped glowing. "And I do believe we've just ruled out the 'fire' passageway."

Lyndon didn't want to respond to the first statement, so he changed the topic to better fit the second. "Do you think that the elements in question actually have anything to do with the ruins themselves, or are they just designations?"

"Hah, who knows! Either way it isn't as if that would stop us. Your wizard seems a bit hellbent on revenge."

"Yes, I think he might be picking up a bad habit or three from our esteemed hunter of demons-- hang on, _my_ wizard? How in Akarat's name did you manage to reach _that_ conclusion?"

"Simple." Han sidestepped a frothing, bubbling puddle, and Lyndon quite nearly fell in because he wasn't looking; he was only saved by a strong gauntleted hand yanking him away from it just in time. "When he looks at you, it's as if he sees nothing else."

"Yes, well, everyone's _always_ known that Li was a bit daft." Lyndon straightened himself out with a huff, not one to like being grabbed like that.

"You don't approve of being cared for, then?" In a moment, the two of them were back on their way. There was one more chamber left to rule out; after that, they'd agreed they would meet back at the waypoint. Since Li couldn't be that terribly far off from a pedestal, the waypoint was where they were headed.

"Isn't this sort of talk against your _vows_ or something?" the thief asked, exasperated.

"You may be surprised to know that my vows are considerably more lenient than _that_."

"Your order would have more recruits if you advertised it _that_ way."

"We take on apprentices, not recruits. Recruits would be in it for the glory, anyway, and there's little of that to be had while on the crusade."

"But there would also be more _women_ to be had while on the crusade."

Han cleared his throat. "Depending on one's preferences."

Lyndon gawked for a moment. " _Please_ don't tell me you've been flirting with me this entire bloody time."

"I do have standards, you know."

"Oh, good. Now I'm not sure whether I should feel insulted or not."

"You shouldn't, at least not terribly. So far only one of your merry band seems to meet them."

Predictably, Lyndon asked which, then decided immediately that he probably shouldn't have. The mental image of the answer he was given was going to haunt him for the rest of the day.

Still, though, it was better than wallowing in his own uselessness, grief and misery, so it was all probably for the best anyway.

 


	13. Glass Houses, Lyndon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adria dies - not with a bang, but with a whimper. Kormac fails at girls. Li really should talk it out with someone, but he probably won't. Lyndon is probably a little more thick than he thinks he is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Had a little writer's block, but I think I've decided how the next few chapters will go. <3's.

For all the build-up, the fight against Adria was rather anti-climactic when they eventually got to it. Part of it was the fact that Ander had somehow managed to stand up on his own long enough to join them at the waypoint and continue onwards into the ruins once they'd discovered the proper passageway, followed by a worried Eirena, which only served to make the nephalem ruins easier to traverse and Adria easier to kill. But part of it was also because, as Lyndon had noted, the demon hunter had started to rub off on Li, and even Adria couldn't stand up to the wizard when he was feeling truly vengeful. Lyndon didn't mind; he wanted Adria dead as much as anyone, so that maybe Leah could be at peace.

Really, though, _Pandemonium_? Of all the places for Malthael to be? Even Lyndon knew that Pandemonium was just one of those places that mortals weren't meant to go. Right bloody mess they'd gotten themselves into, wasn't it? Not that they hadn't survived worse before, but still.

After the witch was slain, the usual portal back to sanity was conjured, and everyone stepped through it with a bit less enthusiasm than they'd had when they had started. Kormac and Tyrael - with the former still wrapped in bandages to keep his ribcage together - ran up to meet them, and the demon hunter gave a status report while everyone else allowed themselves a moment to relax.

Tyrael began trying to suggest that they run off to Pandemonium immediately, but he was stopped by a stern look from the Crusader.

"We haven't eaten, nor have we _slept_. I know it to be fact that _some_ among us haven't slept since our arrival." Han gave Li a withering look, and Lyndon was a little shocked. Of all the people? After going into that rant in the keep about not taking care of oneself, too! "If we are to face Malthael, we need to do so with all of the strength we have at our disposal."

The thief was even more surprised when it was _Ander_ who spoke up next, "Our friend has a point. We cannot fight Death as spent as we are, even as a group." Gods, the world really had gone mad.

Li glared at the both of them. "Every moment we waste _talking_ about it is another moment that Malthael spends gaining power!" he snapped back.

"And if we fail because of exhaustion, wizard? What then?" Though he wasn't shouting, Ander's tone was low and dangerous enough that it couldn't be ignored. "You would have all of humanity fall to Malthael along with you?"

" _I will not fail!_ " Li seemed to think that the way to win this argument was to raise his voice. The demon hunter just looked at him blandly for a long moment, perfectly calm; silence reigned, and Ander let it.

Lyndon could spot the exact moment that Li realized the full implications of what he'd just said.

"There is no shame in having limits to your endurance," Han finally said, gently. The crusader came forward to try and lay a hand on Li's shoulder, but the wizard shoved it away and glared at him. A moment passed in silence, and it almost looked like Li was going to yell at Han, too, but before he could, he seemed to think better of it, turning on his heel and storming off.

\---

A few hours later, Lyndon was sitting on a slightly-too-short stool near Myriam's shop, sipping from a bottle of poor-quality Westmarch wine he'd found in a cellar. Li hadn't come back yet, and everyone was decidedly _not_ mentioning the wizard's outburst, probably because they all knew that he had a point. But they also knew that Han had a point, and that rushing into such a big fight while they were all dead tired wasn't the brightest thing to do when the fate of the world was on the line.

The world, hm? Lyndon couldn't quite bring himself to care. He'd gone from being broken, to numb, to utterly apathetic over the course of about two days. Sure, he supposed he'd be remembered and all that, but his brother was dead and Rea probably wouldn't want to come near him. Besides, who cared about a sidekick, anyway? The only one who gave a damn was apparently Li, and Akarat only knew where he'd gotten off to.

Whatever, he'd think about it later. Right then, he was more interested in drinking and watching Kormac make an ass of himself.

Yes, the former templar was quite determined to do _that_ , it seemed. Lyndon was watching the cringe-worthy conversation that he was having with Ander, and it really was _awful_. The demon hunter was trying to convince Kormac to talk to Eirena - a noble goal, if a little hopeless - and that his vows didn't matter anymore. Kormac was stammering and mumbling his way through the conversation like a schoolboy, which Ander met with his best bland stare.

Lyndon knew why the hunter was encouraging this, of course. Or at least, he suspected. Ander seemed to be doing what was sometimes known as 'friendzoning', by hooking Kormac up with someone else to rid himself of the temptation. The demon hunter always made it look like he hated being close to anyone, but it would probably be more true to say that he liked his lonliness no more than any other man might. Kormac seemed to be his first good friend in _years_ , so it was possible that the demon hunter had never quite learned how the dynamics worked.

Still, rather a roundabout way to go about doing it, wasn't it? Couldn't they just have a good shag to get it out of their systems, then go back to being friends? It had worked for-- well no, actually, it hadn't really worked for him and the wizard at all. To be fair, though, that probably had something to do with the world deciding it wanted to come to a messy, miserable end before they could properly decide what sort of terms they'd like to be friends on. Mad archangels with genocide on their minds usually weren't the sort to _wait_ for a convenient moment before commencing killing, after all. If anything, they'd much rather pick the _worst_ possible moment instead.

The rogue's wandering thoughts were interrupted by Eirena walking up with her innocent smile and big sweet eyes to join the conversation that Ander and Kormac were having, causing the templar to turn an amusing shade of pink. Kormac cleared his throat, and started on a speech that he'd probably been in the middle of rehearsing inside that thick skull of his. Eirena looked confused, tilting her head with a small frown, and asked for clarification.

Kormac's resolve almost shattered, but he got an elbow in his side and a growl from the demon hunter before he could flee the situation. He took a deep breath, and blurted out that he'd left the order and he was no longer bound by their rules. And that he'd like for her to go _adventuring_ with him, when everything was over.

Eirena almost squealed, and started babbling about how wonderful that would be. Then she exclaimed that Kormac was as close to her as her sisters had been, and the poor man just _deflated_ , smiling really awkwardly.

"Erm, sisters... right," Kormac aknowledged, closely resembling a confused, sad puppy. Ander facepalmed and shook his head, but said nothing.

It took a great deal of self-control for Lyndon to not burst out laughing; he smirked into the bottle he'd absconded with, and took a good, long pull from it.

\---

When Li eventually did return, it wasn't to fanfare or cheers, but to guilty silence. He'd changed into a different robe, something less battleworn and more suited to the wet and miserable chill that was Westmarch weather, but Lyndon quite honestly didn't notice right away. In fact, he didn't really even notice the wizard's _presence_ right away, because he was more intent on trying to open a second bottle of that local wine he'd found, sitting on the stone steps that led into the main portion of the courtyard. He only realized Li had joined him when the mage actually sat down next to him and did so.

Lyndon greeted him with a sound that he refused to admit was an awful lot like a childish whine. "Leave me alone. I'm getting drunk, and _no_ ," he sat up a little straighter to frown sternly at the shorter man, "I'm _not_ sharing."

"Too bad, I could use some of that." Li deftly took the bottle from him - or maybe not that deftly, since he wasn't exactly holding onto it that well - and got the stopper off with a lazy gesture of his hand, taking a swig and pulling a face at how it tasted. "You know, if anyone around here could tell you _anything_ about that dagger, it would be Haedrig."

The statement puzzled Lyndon for a moment, and he gave Li a funny look. Gods, he was still on about _that_? "Give it a rest, th'bloody Thieves' Guild killed him."

"You are _so_ certain of it, that you would just _give up_?" the wizard said incredulously, peering at him. "And here I thought you cared about the truth."

"No. I care about _drinking_ ," Lyndon corrected him, "until I remember _nothing_."

Li sighed, setting the bottle down on the step and looking Lyndon in the eye. "And do you intend to go to Pandemonium tomorrow in that state, too?"

With a snort, the thief reached for the bottle again. "Does it even _matter_ anymore?"

"It's the fate of the entire world, Lyndon. Of course it matters." There he was again with those blasted convictions and his damned heroism. Except now, they were more than just concepts to him, weren't they? Lyndon could see that it really _did_ matter to Li, far more than it had before when they were just smashing boxes and looting the corpses of demons for treasures.

Since when had it all stopped being a game, anyway? Lyndon took a drink from the bottle once it was in his hands again. "...Going up against Death," he murmured absently. Then he snorted and shook his head. "Sounds hopeless."

"When has that ever stopped us?" He conceded Li's point with a shrug as the wizard continued. "We're not about to let him win without a fight." On the end of that sentence, there was an unsaid 'are we?' that Lyndon knew was being implied.

_...Oh._ Li needed him to say something, didn't he? Otherwise the wizard wouldn't have come to him at all. Even tipsy off of terrible Westmarch wine, he could see through the other's bravado. "Heh." Putting down the bottle, Lyndon turned enough to face the shorter man. "Damn right."

The smile Li gave in response, Lyndon expected. Hell, after a couple of days of the sort of misery he'd been through, he welcomed it. But he wasn't exactly expecting Li to kiss him on the forehead after standing up and straightening his robes. "Sleep well, my friend," the wizard said quietly, before turning and walking off to likely do the same, himself.

Staring after him for a couple of minutes, Lyndon was fairly tempted to just polish off the second bottle, too. Just how many levels of _mixed messages_ was he supposed to pick his way through, anyway? If he didn't know better from experience, he'd say the wizard was secretly a _girl_ or something.

As Lyndon left the dagger he'd found sticking out of his brother with Haedrig a few minutes later, he told himself that he was doing it just to humor the wizard and get him to shut up, and _not_ out of the actual curiosity that he'd buried far in the back of his mind. Because he was _fine_. He would get some sleep, have breakfast, and be even more absolutely _fine_ in the morning.

 


	14. Can't Be Sure Of Anything Anymore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lyndon is made quite aware of how thick he's being. Pandemonium is a mess. Coffee and healing potion do not mix.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one ran long. Again. But I'm starting to get over my fear of long-ass chapters. Ish. Considering the entire fic is a bit TL;DR by this point to casual readers, there's no point in being afraid of it getting long now.
> 
> Was not proofread. I'll edit later.

The next day, Lyndon faced Pandemonium with a mug of lukewarm coffee in hand and a headache that he tried desperately to ignore. Han and Eirena had decided to go off somewhere to do some _thing_ with her sisters, and Kormac was out of commission still, so that left him, Ander and Li. After getting them to the Heavens and the portal to Pandemonium therein, Tyrael separated from them for some reason or other - Lyndon didn't really feel like paying much attention - and left them in the hands of the aspect of Valor, Imperius.

Imperius was not happy about this. He let them know that he was not happy about this. Repeatedly. Not that any of them cared. When he told them he wouldn't be thanking them before leaving them to their adventure, Ander rolled his eyes and muttered something about not counting on it, and Li smiled too sweetly and told the angel that such things were part of his charm. Lyndon had a mental image of a bird with its feathers ruffled in agitation as the seraph disappeared from sight, leaving the three of them alone.

Now that he had a moment to actually think about what he was experiencing, the thief noted that Pandemonium was rather a bit bleak. The air was slightly thin, and maybe a little stale as well. The sky was a permanent overcast, giving no real indication of what time of "day" it might be, if there were such a thing as day or night in this place. It was windy, but there wasn't any real indication of where the wind might be coming _from_ , which was disorienting. And in general the place had a feel of being cold and dry, but it was more from an abscence of warmth and humidity than anything; to him, it seemed almost like this world between worlds had never been quite _finished_ being made, because whoever had been making it had simply given up partway through.

Likely they'd given up in favor of joining the futile fight over it, Lyndon thought miserably as they descended onto the dry, cracked plain and he could better make out the ages-old piles of armor, weapons, and bodies scattered about the place. Emaciated scavenging animals kept trying to ambush them while they were on their way, along with half-mad demons that had been wasted by time and had probably taken to just attacking anything that had a heartbeat by that point. Even Ander was taking no joy in this hunt, since most of the hindrances they encountered were comparable to mosquitoes in terms of annoyance.

Imperius had said something about siege runes, hadn't he? A great big battering ram needed them, or somesuch. Li had pocketed one on their way down, so that meant there were, oh... two more? Lyndon snorted and paused to add a bit of healing potion to his coffee, hoping to speed up his hangover recovery. Shouldn't be too hard, given what they were facing so far was so weak as to not necessitate the thief spilling his drink.

He took a sip of his new invention of a beverage and almost gagged. Eugh! All right, coffee and healing potion was _right_ out.

"Lyndon, we _will_ leave without you if you keep falling behind," the wizard called out to him from quite a ways up ahead, and Lyndon sighed and poured out the remainder of his foul concoction before tossing the cup aside with a shrug onto a pile of half-disintigrated broken armor.

"Coming." _Well_ , it wasn't like he hadn't had to tough it out with a hangover before.

\---

It didn't take long at all before Lyndon had gravitated towards the one person who _wasn't_ Li once again, seeing as the wizard was being a bit... odd. Sure, Li was being talkative again, which was generally a good thing, but in this case it seemed - to Lyndon, anyway - to be a bad case of nerves. The young man was almost _giddy_ , bounding ahead and smashing into what pitiful resistance they encountered with overpowered spells that tended to crash into the scenery as well. More than once, he'd dislodged a bit of _ground_ from near a cliff, and Lyndon had nearly lost his footing a time or two because of it.

Ander might be a mad bastard, but at least hanging around _him_ , Lyndon wasn't about to get caught in any friendly fire. So long as he dodged well enough, anyway.

After following along behind the demon hunter for a while, the thief tried to strike up a conversation. "Is it just me, or is Li acting a little _strange_?" Might as well get a second opinion while he was at it. The hunter didn't look at him, and didn't stop moving either, but he snorted and shook his head, which Lyndon took as confirmation that he'd been heard.

"We all show fear in different ways," the hunter finally said in that low growling voice of his that Lyndon found slightly off-putting.

"So you think he's afraid. Of what, exactly? _Malthael_?" Lyndon asked, incredulous. The taller man chuckled quietly, but before he could answer, some of the natives decided to attempt another pitiful attack. It was easily discouraged with a few well-aimed bolts, with Ander finishing off the poor bastards with some grenades while they were scattered and fleeing.

Poor little quill-fiend-looking things. They really should have learned by now that wandering Nephalem didn't make for a particularly good dinner. Casual as anything, Ander continued the conversation like the ambush hadn't happened. "He's not the type," the hunter said, picking up the pace a bit so that the wizard didn't get out of sight; Lyndon almost had to run to keep up with the man's long strides. "He doesn't fear demons or angels. Nothing that simple."

The rogue sighed. Right, be cryptic then. "So what _does_ he fear?"

Ander looked back at him then, and the man's eyes glowed faintly under his hood. Did they always do that? "I'd thought you were more perceptive than this, Lyndon." He sounded amused, which only served to irritate the thief.

"If that's supposed to make the answer suddenly come to me out of nowhere, then it isn't _working_ , I'll have you know."

"He fears what might happen if he lets people down. And," the hunter pulled out a handful of grenades and threw them pre-emptively at a pile of broken armor; a quill-fiend-like thing came skittering out in a panic with its back end on fire. "...he fears you." His tone was matter-of-fact and a little bland.

" _Me_?" What-- why? That didn't even make sense! What sort of nephalem would fear a plain human? How was Lyndon even a threat, at _all_? "That's completely absurd."

"You've never given him any reason to think otherwise." Lyndon felt like he was being scolded, even though the hunter wasn't raising his voice. "He expects you to leave."

"To _leave_? How in the _burning hells_ did he reach _that_ conclusion?" And what was it with people knowing more about his best friend than he did himself - particularly people who were around Li even _less_ than Lyndon was!

The hunter sighed a long-suffering sigh, like he was regretting having this conversation. "You aren't exactly _subtle_ about your affairs, Lyndon."

"No, but--" But _what_? It was true. He never stayed with women long. He didn't fall in love. Even making real, honest friends was something new to him. Had he ever indicated that Li was important to him, on _any_ level? He _had_ seen some of the signs of just how lonely the wizard was, but he had thought that it was only circumstance that he'd been the one to see them. Eirena, or Kormac, or even the demon hunter himself could have just as easily been there instead of him when the wizard had broken down in the keep.

He realized that the demon hunter had stopped walking to stare at him, and felt mildly creeped out by it. " _But_...?" Ander prompted him; it almost felt to Lyndon like the demon hunter was reading his thoughts. He didn't like it.

"But... well, it's just that..." Lyndon had been through _interrogations_ that had been less intense than Ander's calm scrutiny. "...He should _know_ by now. I mean, have I ever slept with anyone _else_ in our merry band? Friends are another matter entirely, I should think."

"...You actually slept with him." The hunter's expression went from slightly amused at Lyndon's discomfort to that positively bland look he reserved for when people were being particularly thick.

It was a little bit surprising to the thief that there were still people that didn't know. Even _Myriam_ knew... although, to be fair, she knew everything _ever_. "Hold on, if you didn't know about _that_ then how is it you're able to know the rest of this?"

"He's been in love with you since Caldeum, idiot."

Lyndon stared. Gawked, even. He couldn't quite believe what he'd heard. It was ridiculous, it was insane, it was completely impossible... oh, _gods_ , but if it were true it would explain so much.

It would also mean that, from Li's perspective, Lyndon was being an absolute _twat_ , and had been for some time.

"...but he never said anything," the thief protested weakly.

With a snort and another shake of his head, Ander broke into a run again to follow the wizard, who had gotten so far ahead that he'd be hard to spot were it not for his spellwork. It took Lyndon a minute to gather his wits enough to follow.

\---

The demons that guarded the siege runes were no more difficult to defeat than the ones that had littered the plain; even in whatever stasis field-thing they'd been put in, they still seemed to have lost a bit of their strength by the time the trio of humans got to them. Either that, or Ander and Li were just that good. Considering he'd seen one of Ander's "cluster arrow" things separate a demon's top half from its bottom half, and Li's spells could literally _debone_ things, the latter was entirely possible.

Runes in hand, they set off for the battering ram feeling confident. Then they were handed a bit of reality, however, when a sizeable group of reapers was found to be blocking their path. Malthael must have gotten wind of them getting past his maidens who had been in the process of sealing the way to Pandemonium from the heavens.

Well, it could also be that he'd gone stark raving mad and was taking ridiculous amounts of precautionary measures out of paranoia, but Lyndon preferred the thought of facing Malthael _lucid_ to having to fight him after he'd gone off on one. Mad people were unpredictable enough. Mad _angels_ were probably even worse.

Tyrael was there to meet them when they reached the ram, with a haunted look about him. Actually listening to the former angel for a moment gave Lyndon a good idea as to why; it seemed that the black soulstone was being changed so that it would not only trap the essence of the demon lords, but also all of the demonic essence it could find in whatever realm it found itself in.

As in, all of the demonic essence in every _human_ soul it touched, too.

They didn't waste another moment climbing aboard the ram. Tyrael took over the task of getting the runes set up, and then it was just the four of them, standing _atop_ a demon-built ram, smashing their way into one of the most fought-over angelic fortifications in all of Creation, just so that they could kill a rogue angel. Funny how things turned out, wasn't it? Though, Lyndon wasn't quite sure why they were _riding_ the battering ram. Couldn't they just bash their way in and then climb over it?

He braced himself for the ram's impact against the gates as it swung forward the first time, though he probably couldn't have prepared himself for how badly it jarred him no matter _what_ he held onto. Then his earlier question was answered by a second impact, this one accompanied by the sudden and heavy metallic _clang_ of what appeared to be a thick chain attatching itself to the ram by a massive hook. Well, _bollocks_.

Ander was the first one to leap into any sort of action, seeing as he was the one with those blasted claw-things on his boots and thus he was the one best able to keep his footing; he was already readying a few grenades to fling at the hook as Li was getting to his feet. That left Lyndon and Tyrael as the first ones to notice the reapers that had begun to descend upon them from over the side of the fortress itself. Between El'druin's light and Lyndon's bolts, there were only a couple left for the two nephalem to pick off when grenades and arcane missiles had finished with the chain. The ram, now freed, pitched backward again. Lyndon braced himself.

_Wham_. The gates heaved and buckled partly from the blow, but it wasn't enough to break through them. More chains, with three hooks this time that needed to be broken. The reapers seemed to have realized that someone was knocking on their door; they were coming in greater numbers. Lyndon couldn't load his crossbow fast enough to keep up. He threw a fistful of blinding powder, but it barely did anything.

There was an explosion of energy ahead that shook the whole ram, and snapped one of the chains like it was nothing. Reapers went flying, and another let out an ear-splitting shriek as a red beam of light hit it and scattered its essence into dust. Before long, Ander had vaulted away to the back of the ram where Lyndon was, with part of his cloak and hood magically burnt away and singed at their tattered edges. The hunter looked slightly alarmed, and he was dusted with faintly glowing purple residue.

Lyndon didn't have to look to the front of the ram to know that Li had used his Archon ability _thing_. It was enough that he could hear the death wails of the reapers and the telltale sound of the heavy chains holding the ram in place being sliced through. The carnage that the wizard caused with that ability wasn't the most pleasant thing to watch, even if it was their enemies he was blowing to bits.

Free to move once again, the ram swung back, and slammed into the gates of the fortress one last time. It was with that final blow that the holy metals used in their construction gave way. The sound that they made as they did so almost defied description, except that it made Lyndon's head ache all over again, and he was quite glad that he'd never have to hear it again for the rest of his life.

Or at least, _hopefully_ he wouldn't have to. The way his day had been going, he wasn't going to call himself sure of _anything_ anymore.

 


	15. Journals Need Better Locks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Demon hunters have issues. Lyndon is really bad with this staying focused thing. Heart-to-hearts don't work the same when the two hearts in question are both snarky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DH thing with his sister is verbatim from screenshots. Omitted Lyndon reading his note aloud because it didn't flow well; Li probably already read it anyway and knows what it says.
> 
> The second half is partly mine. When I blocked on which bit to reference next, I ended up saying 'fuck it', throwing my references out and starting from scratch. It turned out far better than trying to shoehorn in screenshotted dialogue would have.
> 
> This chapter didn't end where it should have because it ran long. AGAIN. At least the next one's plotted.

"When I fought Malthael, my sword passed through him like air," Tyrael told the three of them rather grimly, once they were all inside the fortress. "He is in a state of life and death, impervious to physical harm. Your magic is not enough," and with that he addressed Li directly, causing the wizard to frown. "To defeat him, you must channel the power of death as he does."

Li bit his lip as he thought about that, looking around for an answer. Lyndon couldn't see what he might be looking for; apart from the seemingly endless void below them and the winding, narrow pathways that were the only thing keeping them from falling to their deaths, there was only a vague blue glow some ways off in the distance. But it was that very white-blue light that Li focused on. "Look at the spirits gathered below. Could they be the key?" Oh, so it was a great big mess of ghosts.

Wait, just how many ghosts did there have to _be_ for a large group of them to glow so brightly from this far off? That was more than a bit disturbing. "The power of the dead..." Tyrael said to himself as he considered it. "If you could become one with it, you would be as Malthael is, and you could face him. But you must find a way quickly. With every moment, thousands die, and Malthael's power grows beyond anything I have ever seen."

Both Ander and Li nodded, but Lyndon was skeptical. The power of the _dead_? Wouldn't they die in the process of that? The two nephalem started off down the nearest narrow pathway, and the thief hesitantly followed them, still having a few too many questions and things he was unsure about. Still, it was the only plan they really _had_ , and he wasn't about to just abandon them - particularly the wizard - to their fates. Even if he were to try, it wasn't as if Sanctuary was any safer.

What other choice was there but to soldier on, at that point?

They were about to hit a crossroads of those too-small walkways when the wizard, who was leading the way, spotted something that made him stop in his tracks for a moment, before running off ahead at full tilt with his ability to teleport lending him a bit of extra speed. Lyndon didn't know what Li had seen; he wasn't close enough to him to make it out. But when Ander stopped as well, staring at something directly in front of him, the rogue was near enough to him to spot what he was looking at.

Before the two of them stood the wispy form of a little girl, who couldn't have been very old at all. "Do you recognize me?" she asked in a sad, ethereal voice. By the demon hunter's haunted, terrified expression, Lyndon could see that Ander _did_ recognize her.

"You sound like... my sister." Ander had a sister? Just looking at her, Lyndon couldn't bring himself to make a joke about it like he normally would. She was so _young_! Good gods, was that the age she'd been when she died?

As quickly as she'd appeared, the little girl vanished from sight, leaving the two men standing and staring at where she'd been. It wasn't long before Ander took off at an all-out sprint in the same direction Li had gone, and Lyndon was forced to go after him. If family was involved for Ander, then what about Li? What had he seen? Was he all right?

They caught up to the wizard on the precipice of a chasm, and it was in that chasm that they found the source of the light from before. A swirling mass of countless souls, trapped in some sort of _thing_ that looked to be of angelic construction. Li was babbling excitedly to a kind-looking and stunningly beautiful ghost woman, whose name was apparently Isendra. She seemed to be one of his old teachers, by the way the conversation was going. Lyndon breathed a quiet sigh of relief that it wasn't any dead family that the wizard had found.

For the demon hunter, though, there wasn't any good news to be had. The taller man had caught up to the little girl's ghost, and Lyndon had never seen him so _afraid_. "Halissa?" Ander breathed, as if he didn't dare believe it. "It cannot be. This is some... _trap_."

The little girl looked like she might cry. "What? Don't you know your own sister?" she asked, her voice wavering.

That did it. Ander kneeled so that he was at her eye level, his expression instantly turned sympathetic and terribly, terribly _sad_. "I lost you... many years ago," he explained, which sounded to Lyndon like an apology.

"Yes, but now I've found you again." The girl - Halissa - seemed relieved when the hunter finally aknowledged who she was. "Someone bad keeps me here... Can you make him go away?"

Her voice was absolutely heartbreaking. "Yes, but first... I'll need your help." Ander spoke with a tone that Lyndon knew intimately, the sort that a brother uses to tell their weaker sibling that they need them to be strong, because he knows that everything is about to go to hell.

Halissa nodded once, firmly. "The bad one draws power from us so that no one can hurt him," she said in a way that implied someone else had explained it to her. They probably had. She didn't seem old enough to understand this. "I'll tell everyone to give their strength to you instead." The girl paused for a second, glanced around nervously, then back up at her brother with pleading eyes. "Then you'll make him go away, right?"

"Nothing would please me more," Ander told her, offering a weak smile as reassurance.

Nodding again, Halissa scuffed one of her transluscent feet on the floor before speaking again. "...there are so _many_ people here. I looked for mum and dad, but I can't find them."

"I hope they are at rest," he tried to say, but Halissa shook her head quickly.

"No. They're somewhere nearby. I hear them-- screaming. Always screaming..." She looked scared and upset, and Lyndon knew that if his urge to hug the poor child was so great, then Ander must have it a thousand times worse.

The demon hunter didn't have anything to say on the matter, though. He'd withdrawn into himself, into the nightmares that the others had told Lyndon about. For the first time, in the entire time that he'd known Ander, the thief felt like he had a fairly good grasp on just what the taller man's inner demons _were_.

"Do you remember the last time we were together?" she continued after a while when Ander didn't say anything. "I was trying to sleep, but I saw demons everywhere... I ran and ran, and then I was falling into the river." Her accusing look at her brother pierced him more effectively than any weapon ever had. "Why did you leave me there?"

"I reached for you. I tried to hold onto you..." The hunter sounded closer to tears than Lyndon had ever known him to be, and his voice was choked with regret and pain. "...I-if there was anything else I could have done..."

Somehow, Halissa seemed to realize that her words were hurting her brother, and she softened a little. "It's all right," she assured. "It didn't hurt. I just went to sleep."

Ander forced a tight smile. "Yes... You did."

With a very deep frown, Lyndon stepped forward, put his hand on Ander's shoulder, and gave it a gentle squeeze.

\---

As the three of them carefully navigated the stairways and corridors, fighting off reaper ambushes that became steadily more frequent and aggressive, Lyndon found himself with quite a lot on his mind. For this leg of the trip, he'd taken to travelling in the middle of the group, with Li in front and the hunter in the back. He was just better at providing distracting cover fire when he wasn't being distracted himself by every single thing _ever_ that thought it could sneak up on them from behind.

Besides, the reapers had the advantage of _flight_ , and with the two nephalem so focused on keeping the path clear, _someone_ had to keep the diving, swooping corrupted angels at bay. He might not be able to kill as many of them as the other two, but Lyndon was perfectly capable of holding his own when he had to. He forced himself not to think about the people dying back in Sanctuary. He pushed thoughts of what sort of state the demon hunter might be in to the back of his mind. He was putting forth a great effort toward ignoring how aware he was of Li's presence.

Saving the world mattered too much to let himself get sidetracked now. Everyone he knew, along with the souls of everyone he ever _had_ known and since lost, depended on it...

And then, of course, they got lost.

It wasn't anyone's _fault_ exactly, it was only that the place was set up in such a way that it was impossible to get one's bearings. Even with Li being able to see magic and such, they didn't have a clue which way was the correct one when they would come to a crossroads, and as such, it had probably been inevitable that they'd come out at a dead end _sometime_.

After a quick debate between the two nephalem, they decided that since Ander was the one with the longest stride and best vision, it was probably best that they send him to go scout out which way might lead to the proper path. Lyndon knew full well that this would leave him alone with Li. He wasn't sure if he liked that thought, but he couldn't keep up with Ander reliably, and he'd only slow them down further if he got lost trying to go a different direction.

For a minute after the hunter had wandered off, the two of them simply stood quietly, awkwardly. Something probably needed to be done to break the ice, he knew, but what was there to say? Mentioning that someone else had told him about the wizard's feelings just felt like a blatant admission that he'd breached the man's privacy, and all the other things he came up with just ended up sounding dull or trite in his head.

Luckily, he didn't need to come up with anything after all; Li was the one to end the silence, pulling a rolled-up parchment from one of the pockets inside his robes and holding it out to Lyndon. "Here. Read this note." The mage let out a slow, steadying breath. "Haedrig found it inside the dagger."

Lyndon blinked a bit as he reached out to take the note, unfurling it and unconsciously mouthing the words as he scanned its contents;

Lyndon,

I killed him. Come after me if you must. I'll be waiting.

-Rea

"... _Rea_?" he said aloud. Li looked at him blankly. "My brother's wife..."

The wizard looked like something had been settled in his mind upon hearing that. "And the love of your life," he said, like he was resigned to it. "Tell me, why would she do this?"

Swallowing heavily around the lump that had formed in his throat, Lyndon shook his head and stuffed the note into one of the pockets of his coat, turning to look the wizard in the eye. "I don't want to talk about her. Not until this matter is settled," and not until he'd had a chance to talk with Li about a few things, "and I know you and I will see it done."

"...right. My apologies for having brought it up." Even though Lyndon was reeling from the new information still - today was just _not_ his day - he had enough presence of mind to be able to tell that when Li turned away from him to stare off into the distance, that was a sign of the wizard being upset.

He had to say something. Even if he didn't trust his voice, and he had a thousand doubts about everything, and the whole damned _world_ was about to end. "...Don't apologize. If you hadn't said anything, I would have found out about the note and come to you asking for it."

"At this point, it only serves to distract you. My timing was... off." Li was keeping his back to Lyndon, hiding his face. That wouldn't do. Couldn't talk to him properly if he couldn't see him.

The thief decided it was time he attempted a joke. "Heh. I've got a _million_ other little things on my mind right now doing their level best to distract me already. What's one more?" A little of the humor was lost due to his voice still wavering a little, but it still had the desired result; slowly, the wizard turned again to face him. It was fine that Li wasn't smiling. Lyndon would take what he could get.

Even if what he could get was being frowned at and scrutinized. "I get the feeling you're not being entirely truthful with me."

"Probably not. Though, I don't suppose _you're_ being completely honest with _me_ , either." This was starting to get into dangerous territory. Might as well go all in. It might very well be the last free moment that they had.

"I've been more honest with you than I have with anyone else. Just because I don't go around spouting my life's story..."

"--More like you've barely told me anything. You don't tell _anyone_ anything. Here you are, knowing almost everything there is to know about _me_ , and yet all I know about you is that you lived in Caldeum for a long while even though you weren't born there, you spent some time living in a slum, and you don't like spiders."

"I think you know quite a bit more than that, considering we've been friends for well ov-- hey! I never told _you_ about the spiders!"

"Yes, well, I may have taken a peek at your journal while you weren't around."

" _Lyndon_!" The wizard turned a hilarious shade of pink.

"Oh, come on, I didn't read about anything _interesting_ if that's what you're worried about. Although..." Lyndon was actually having some fun teasing him. "It _has_ been a while. Is there anything in there you'd be upset about me finding, then?"

"I didn't write anything about your _performance_ , if that's what you're asking." Li folded his arms over his chest and frowned in an almost pouty way.

Honestly, it was starting to feel more like a conversation they may have had before everything went to hell and back. Lyndon couldn't help grinning a little. "If you didn't, then _clearly_ I was doing something wrong, wasn't I? Seems I'll have to remedy that when we're done here."

"Ohhh no you don't. I'm not about to be another notch in your crossbow. Just friends from here on in." The shorter man's tone was stern and final.

"Friends with benefits, maybe? No?" His suggestion was met with a glare. "You're just a mess of mixed signals, aren't you?"

" _Really?_ If I'm a mess of mixed signals, what does that make _you_?"

Ahhh, there was the problem. "Confused, mostly," he admitted. "Lately though, I really don't--"

A few meters away, the demon hunter cleared his throat, looking between the two of them and tapping one of his crossbows idly against the opposite arm. His little brown bat was poking its tiny, fuzzy head out from the folds of his hood, which had been pulled down.

"If you two are busy, then I'm certain Malthael can wait until later," Ander said dryly.

Oh, right. The world needed saving.

 


	16. Those Blasted Archway Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lyndon thinks being a mage must be trippy as hell. Isendra is fairly sure that Lyndon is banging her student, and totally ships it. Li is immune to the hypnotic power of ghostly tits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh, perfect length this time. Made possible by the fact that Lyndon is probably some kind of undiagnosed attention deficit ooh shiny sufferer.
> 
> Now that he KNOWS Li likes him, he's gonna tease the shit out of him for it.

Ander may have cleared the reapers along the way, but more had come to take their place after he'd gone. Cutting through them was becoming more of a routine between the three of them and they were getting more efficient at it as they went. Though, sometimes they'd still be thrown off by something bigger. For instance, those flying fat ones that turned the ground to ice in front of them? Yes, Lyndon had slipped on that a couple of times. Once he'd ended up faceplanting the floor because of it.

But the most annoying thing _had_ to be those blasted archway things. Ander hadn't gotten caught in one yet, probably because of all of them, he had the best situational awareness. Li didn't get fully stuck in them either, but he'd sometimes end up with a frosty foot or the tails of his robe frozen rock solid. Lyndon, however, was not as lucky. So far, he'd gotten frozen three times, and he was starting to question whether or not he'd come out of this mess with all his fingers and toes intact due to feeling slightly frostbitten. If they made it out alive at all, of course.

Ah well, at least Li had relaxed a little. Even if they'd had more of a _row_ than an actual conversation, the wizard had come out of it acting more normal than Lyndon had seen him in days, albeit still a bit worried and nervous about their situation in general. Though, the thief couldn't tell whether or not the wizard was killing things more quickly because he'd gotten used to the reapers' tactics, or because he wanted to get it all over with, or maybe because of that old-fashioned _heroic_ streak of his and wanting to save as many people as possible. Well, now that he actually thought about it, he was starting to think that it might just be a combination of the three.

They blasted, shot and exploded their way through the reapers until they got to the narrow staircase that led to the next level, descending with varying levels of care. Li was up in front with his usual teleport-happy methods of getting from point A to point C by skipping the route through point B entirely, leaving the other two a ways behind him as he normally did, and Lyndon was taking long enough that Ander had taken to setting up a sentry behind them (the rogue had long since stopped questioning the sentry-things) to ward off any that might follow them. Not much, but enough to buy them a few minutes.

By the time Lyndon caught up with the wizard, Li had already dispatched with the maiden; the device holding the souls captive was blown to bits by an arcane orb just as he reached the younger man's side.

The thief was just in time to keep Li from falling as the power of angry, restless souls beyond reckoning poured into him, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to stagger.

Lyndon grinned a little at the wizard he'd caught with his arm. "You alright, there?"

Li blinked rapidly, holding his hands out and looking at them. If Lyndon didn't know better he'd say it looked like the smaller man was _on_ something. "I feel... different," he said, straightening and pulling away from the thief's grip. "My awareness grows. The very _essence_ of things stands revealed to me..."

Then he looked up suddenly; the woman from before, whom Lyndon had identified as the wizard's mentor, was standing in front of them with her arms folded and a knowing smirk curling her lips. Looking a little closer, the rogue realized that if this beautiful woman had been _his_ teacher, he would never have learned a thing. One would almost _have_ to prefer men to be that blissfully unaware of the sorceress'... _assets_.

When Li spoke again, he was addressing her. "Is this what it means to be dead?"

"You are not dead. You now occupy the same state Malthael does," she informed him. She wasn't looking at Li directly, though. It seemed more like she was measuring the distance between the wizard and Lyndon, and making guesses about what her student was up to. Lyndon managed to stop looking at her cleavage long enough to notice this, and gave her his best cheeky grin.

"That means I can hurt him. _Badly_." Li grinned too, but for different reasons. Bloodthirsty ones. He looked oblivious to the nonverbal back-and-forth between his mentor and Lyndon.

The woman snorted. "Hmph. You sound again as I remember you. Yes, you are ready, and you have the means to destroy Malthael." Her tone then softened to one that was more of a gentle reminder as well as a reprimand. "But do not forget all that you have learned upon your journey. We need you. The _world_ needs you."

It was impressive to see the wizard go from cocky to almost-obedient in an instant the way he did then. "I understand," he said. Just then, Ander was catching up to them, and his sister materialized a ways off to give him the same power that Li had gotten. That seemed to remind the wizard of something, and he turned to his teacher again. "Isendra, might I ask you one last favor before I go?"

The sorceress was amused, but Lyndon could only frown in confusion. "I told you before that you need not ask, good as it is to see that you have learned humility."

Li bit his lip gently and frowned. "I... I would have this man join me in the fight against Malthael." ...Oh, right! Lyndon needed to have that power-whatsit to fight too if he didn't want his bolts passing through Malthael like air. He'd almost forgotten about that.

Isendra smirked slyly. "I have a feeling he would join you whether you would _have_ him or not."

"Too right I woul-- _gnh!_ " Lyndon nearly buckled as the wave of energy and magic and power hit him, steadying himself by gripping Li's shoulder. Damn it, they could _warn_ a fellow before pumping him full of spirit-magic! Was it supposed to feel all tingly like that? At least it served as confirmation that his fingers weren't too badly frostbitten. And... that everything had gone wooshy and glowy.

Wait, _what_? Standing a little straighter, Lyndon took a moment to observe his surroundings. He could hardly _begin_ to describe the things he was seeing. A glance at Li was like looking at a pack of Xiansai fireworks going off through a kaleidescope. Isendra's ghost was more wispy and ethereal than she'd been before, too. And when he turned to look at Ander, what he saw was enough to startle him. Were people _supposed_ to seethe with red and black energy like that?

"...Did you slip me something?" he asked finally, turning to glare at the mad light show that was the wizard. Gods, things even _sounded_ off.

Li chuckled. "Not that I'm aware of."

"The last time I remember hallucinating like _this_ , I was on _heroin_ ," though, he was fairly sure Li didn't go near that sort of thing, come to think of it.

The ghost of Isendra smiled. "You see things now as a gifted mage might see them."

"Right, then." He'd heard Eirena going on about seeing things that weren't there before. The thing was, when he lifted his hand to pass it through one of the energy currents around Li, he could sort of halfway feel it. He was fairly certain that hadn't been a _thing_ before. "So, to a mage, Ander looks positively _demonic_ and Li looks like what happens when a Caldeum dye merchant's stall explodes."

The wizard rolled his eyes. "And you look positively _dull_."

"No wonder you like me so much. I'm the only one that doesn't make your eyes bleed." For a second it seemed like Li might slap him, but all he did was blush and turn away quickly. Except he couldn't hide, because his embarassment made the magic around him swirl and bend and move differently. Ohoho! Lyndon sincerely hoped that this newfound power of his might last for quite a while so that he could put it to use properly.

If they lived to see Malthael dead, anyway.

\---

They _did_ eventually get on their way again - Lyndon had spent an extra moment looking for Edlin when he'd remembered, but hadn't found his brother amongst the teeming masses of spectres before Li had pulled him away from his rather morbid distraction - only to find that the reapers had gotten more desperate now that they were on the defensive. It was probably a good thing that they had their new shiny ghost powers, because otherwise they might've actually been overwhelmed as they continued on their way to Malthael.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to just cut through them, this time, because the corrupted angels were piling in behind them as they made forward progress. Lyndon was having to multitask and help Ander fend off the ones coming at them from the rear alongside having to keep an eye on their surroundings and catch the ones that flew in from above. It was a shame, too, because he sort of wanted to marvel at the demon hunter's magic, and the way it surged and boiled and heaved like it was barely contained by the taller man's strength of will.

More of a shame that he wasn't getting to marvel at Li's, though. From what glimpses he could get, the wizard's control and focus made Ander's look amateurish, and he couldn't imagine what his own must look like when he enchanted his bolts.

Li didn't just draw from his own reserves, but from his surroundings and the nearly-invisible lines and pathways of natural magic that hung in the air. It flowed around him and through him and with him, and every gesture he made was carefully executed and practiced. Lyndon had only seen the movements themselves before, and they hadn't made sense; seeing the magic along with them made it all clear. Reckless the wizard may be, but he was using his abilities to their greatest potential, and using painstakingly thorough methods to do so. The man knew _exactly_ what he was doing.

And when it became obvious by the time they got to the final portal to Malthael that at least one of the trio would have to stay behind to keep the reapers at bay and allow for the big fight to happen, it turned out that Ander agreed with the thief's assessment.

"Go. I will keep them busy," the demon hunter said, already stopping in his tracks. With a few more cluster arrows, he bought himself enough time to set up a sentry.

The only one to not approve of this plan was Li. "But we need you to defeat Malthael," he insisted, frowning.

Ander shook his head without looking at either of them. "When the demons who attempted to take Bastion's Keep set out to distract you with a cursed chest, you slew more than three hundred of them before I had even arrived." Lyndon could see and even _feel_ the dark magic pulsing and seething around the hunter, and he took a step back. "Your strength is what defeated Diablo, and it will defeat Malthael. Now, _go."_

Chewing on his lower lip, Li nodded once, and turned to step through the portal. Lyndon didn't hesitate to follow; Ander could handle the reapers well enough, probably for hours, and he could probably stand to blow off a bit of steam against them without worrying about collateral damage. The last thing the rogue saw before passing the threshold was Ander drawing from something deep within to harness the power that his hatred and vengeance contained.

" _Bleed, you filth_..." he heard the man snarl, just before he came out the other side of the portal into what had to be the most deafening dead silence he'd ever known.

 

\---

Art by yours truly:

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love you all. <3
> 
> MALTHAEL FITE NEXT CHAPTER. WOO.


	17. Don't Fear The Reaper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> FITE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fights always take me the longest. I didn't mean to end it like this, but this chapter ran way longer than I thought it would.
> 
> Seasons don't fear the reaper, nor do the moon and the sun and the rain~

Silence reigned for several seconds, though to Lyndon it felt like an eternity. It was the sort of stifling quiet that came from an abscence of ambient sound, making him far too aware of every sound he made down to the shifting materials of his clothes and armor. That they were in a large, round chamber with a domed ceiling - and presumably a domed roof as well - did nothing to make the unnerving quiet any better, only serving to make those usually barely-perceptible sounds echo more obviously.

The air felt different than it had in Pandemonium proper, thicker, utterly still, and more humid to the point of making him feel slightly clammy, but it was a dusty and dead sort of thickness like one might fine in a badly ventilated mine-shaft or ancient crypt. There was a faint smell of decay and mildew about the place; silly as it was, Lyndon was having to repress the urge to sneeze because of it.

But that wouldn't be proper with the former Archangel of Wisdom watching, would it? Hardly right to start off the story of how he defeated Death with a _sneeze_ , anyway. Though he wasn't sure he would want to start it with what he was actually thinking right at that moment either, because his thoughts were a bit too human to make for a good heroic tale.

_Akarat's mercy, we don't stand a chance_ , he thought. Li had said he saw the true nature of things with that ghost-magic in him, but if the horror before him was Malthael's true nature, he wanted no part in it. It was impossible for him to put to words what he was seeing, but if pressed, he would have called it an abomination. Angelic beauty and grandeur turned foul and twisted by madness and seclusion. It was impossible to say where the angel's energy and magic ended, or where the energy and magic of the spirits he'd tortured and enslaved began after that.

Li wasn't backing down, though. So Lyndon wouldn't either.

Malthael broke the silence with a voice that the thief could only describe as the ominous rumble of an avalanche combined with the howling madness of a blizzard. " _The soulstone is upon Sanctuary. The blood of demons will soon be gone from all creation._ " The angel tilted his head slightly. " _You will be the last of your kind... For a few moments._ "

That was all the warning they got before Malthael lunged at them with lightning-swiftness.

Both of them were jumpy enough to dodge, but they ended up dodging in different directions. Li went to the right, and Lyndon to the left. That was fine. Neither of them was particularly dependent on proximity. Lyndon loaded a bolt into his crossbow as Li was throwing the first few spells, sending bolts of electricity the angel's way. They hit him, but Lyndon noted with a wince that they only seemed to singe the angel's robes. That wouldn't do.

The thief took careful aim at Malthael's back. _Steady..._ "Yes!" he shouted as the bolt hit home and the angel whipped that faceless head around to look at him. "...Oh, _bollocks_."

Lyndon took off running. Suddenly the chamber that had seemed so large before was far, _far_ too small. Too cramped. There was very little in the way of places to run to. He heard Li yell a warning, but it was too late; a frozen mist had formed before him, around him, even freezing the ground at his feet. He lost his footing and scrambled to get it back. Then he was picked up by a scythe-blade hooking underneath his armor, hefting him up off the floor as easily as one might lift a kitten by its scruff. His crossbow clattered to the floor.

Malthael lifted him by his breastplate, up to what would be the angel's eye level if he had eyes. The blade had sliced through his underclothes and a bit of skin like they were warm butter, and he could feel the cold metal on his flesh; he tried to grip it only to have it cut through the hardened leather of his glove and into his fingers, causing him to cry out involuntarily. Forcing himself to think his way through things, he stopped trying to negotiate the blade itself and went for the fastenings of his own breastplate instead, pointedly ignoring the blood running down his injured hand inside his ruined glove as well as the fact that the angel was raising his other weapon.

" _Death will release you from pain..._ " the mad seraph said. His other scythe glinted in the low, ethereal light. Except it was the wrong color light for the room, a sort of purplish-pink gleam. A sudden thought occurred to Lyndon, and he stopped trying to pull apart his armor in favor of taking it apart more forcibly with a dagger. He'd apologize to Haedrig _later_.

He fell to the floor again with a strained grunt just as the angel's curved blade pierced his breastplate, but he didn't have time to appreciate having the wind knocked out of him by the impact against the ground. Paying no heed to the complaints his body was already sending him for this sort of sudden rough treatment, he forced himself to shift a few feet to the side so that he wouldn't be caught in whatever happened next.

"Li, _now_!" he yelled just as he got clear. The ensuing black hole was just dangerously close enough to pull at the edge of his coat. Malthael made a sound that was sort of like a growl and turned to find the source of the disruption, but the angel was having a bit of trouble deciding which of the four copies of the wizard to attack. In the instant that followed, three more black holes formed and began to converge on each other, with the archangel shrieking in the middle. Lyndon sat up just in time to watch their mind-bending gravity-power pulling the angel's armor off and apart, turning it into twisted bits and chunks of metal.

Malthael dispelled them, but not before they'd stripped off a quarter of his armor and left him fairly injured, bleeding an ethereal, faintly-glowing white substance from his wounds. The mirror images laughed and lifted their collective hands into the air for another spell, peeling away chunks of stone from the ceiling and coating them in frost. These chunks were lobbed at the angel, but this time Malthael was ready for it, and he diced them to pieces before they were able to hit him.

Oh, good. He was insane enough to ignore his injuries. _Glad that's sorted_ , Lyndon thought with a good amount of sarcasm as he fumbled for a healing potion that _hadn't_ been smashed to bits when he fell from ten feet up.

As the mirror images faded, Malthael homed in quickly on where Li actually was, and sprung forward to attack again. For a tense moment the wizard seemed to do nothing, though as Lyndon looked closer, he could see that Li was actually gathering power from his surroundings and his own personal reserves in towards himself. The thief realized what was going to happen a split instant before it did; luckily, Malthael didn't realize it at all.

All that built-up power exploded outward in a sudden shockwave just as Malthael was scarcely a few feet from striking the wizard. It was strong enough for Lyndon to feel it from as far off as he was; he didn't need the ability to see magic to know that Li had just hit the angel with the full force of his Archon form's initial transformation.

He had to admit though, if what Archon looked like _before_ was a light show of purple and stars already, then he'd have to find something more colorful to describe it _with_ the ability to see magic thrown in. It became even more ridiculous when, as Li channeled his disintigrating beam into the seraph and seared through yet more of that armor and angelic "flesh", Lyndon could see the red light of the spell winding down _through_ the wizard's arms from his sparkly cosmic energy core, and from there into his fingers and the spell's single main beam. Was that even safe? Did Li care whether it was or not?

Malthael seemed to decide that he'd taken enough abuse from the wizard after not-really-very-long-at-all, giving what sounded to Lyndon like a snarl and pushing himself backward with a single powerful movement of his ghostly wings. Another flap of those wings brought him far enough out of range that Li had to chase after him, and Lyndon took that as his cue to heave himself to his feet and pick up his crossbow while he had a chance thanks to the seraph being distracted. The clash between nephalem and archangel gave Lyndon time to load the crossbow, but with his hand mangled as it was, he quickly found that he couldn't fire the blasted thing. Not reliably, anyway.

Gods, if only his own healing potion supply wasn't currently soaking the lining of his coat. Reluctantly returning his crossbow to its place on his back, he took up his knife again in his good hand. If he had to, he'd use it, but only if it was absolutely necessary. Otherwise, if he was to be perfectly honest with himself, he'd just be getting in Li's way.

Naturally it became clear that it might just be absolutely necessary when, as Li's ability to maintain his archon form was slipping away from him, Malthael took wing again and summoned up the black soulstone from out of nowhere. Being able to see its magical aura made it no less menacing a thing, especially with that reddish-black smoke billowing off of it. "Akarat's bane, that can't be good..." he mumbled as he watched in horror.

" _You are imbued with the power of death..._ " the seraph said with an eerie sort of calm about him like he knew exactly what he was about to do and had come to terms with the lunacy, " _...but that will not save you._ " His blades flashed in the low light as they sliced through the stone like it was air, dicing it to pieces.

Lyndon could only stare, then, as the angel absorbed the stone's pieces, writhing in seeming agony as they sank into him and became a part of him. The thief could see why; all that darkness and demonic energy mingled and merged with Malthael's own, forcing it to change into something different. Something twisted, something foul. It wasn't quite that it was a hideous sight, but something about the wrongness of it struck Lyndon and kept him transfixed.

The angel landed, seething with the dark red glow of corrupt magic. " _Death consumes all_."

If Li hadn't teleported to grab the rogue, then he would have been caught in Malthael's sudden, new attack consisting of a frontal arc of bright red lightning. As it was, he made an undignified noise as he was caught by the collar, and was none too happy about the second disorienting 'port that took him halfway across the bloody chamber before he could protest.

"That's one of Diablo's attacks," Li said with a deep frown furrowing his brow. Lyndon could see that he was sweating. But more than that, he could tell the wizard was _weakening_. The smaller man had hardly anything left in his reserves of arcane energy at all. "He's completely insane."

"We should stall him until Ander gets here," Lyndon suggested, glancing over at Malthael. The seraph was already turning to face them again, weapons ready. If he'd already used one of Diablo's attacks... Lyndon shivered as he remembered some of what Belial and Azmodan had thrown at them. All seven Evils, channeled through a mad angel.

The wizard shook his head. "No, there isn't time." His eyes darted between Malthael and Lyndon, and his lower lip split slightly from how hard he was gnawing on it as he thought things over. "...Do you trust me?"

"Haha, no." The answer was immediate, and Lyndon flashed the shorter man a quick grin as he readied his dagger. "Why, what're you--!" Suddenly his heart lept into his throat at the unsettling sensation of being grabbed and teleported again, all the way to the far side of the chamber near the portal that time. Before he could so much as open his mouth to question it, Li had ported back to the side of the chamber nearest Malthael.

Oh, damn it all... Li was going to do something _heroic_ , wasn't he? That little _twat_ , he was going to get himself killed!

Lyndon didn't have much time to stop and wonder where that thought had come from before the other side of the room exploded in the most impressive magical light show yet.

In rapid succession, the technical order of the spells was as follows: icy ceiling meteors to distract, then mirror images, black holes, and archon. However, the way the spells worked off of each other was far more complex and frankly terrifying than that, because after the relative normalcy of the ceiling meteors, and slightly rarer sight of four different versions of Li casting swirling black holes at once, Lyndon got to see _four Archons_ explode at once. Then as he saw the four disintegration beams aimed at the single seraph, he realized that the beams were somehow keeping the black holes alive longer than they should be. Malthael howled in rage and pain at the onslaught.

The mirror images started to flicker; the black holes began to collapse in on themselves. Malthael struggled to get out of their intense pull, but Li persisted. As Lyndon watched, he couldn't help but notice that a different sort of energy was helping to feed the spells and keep them going past their natural limits. It wasn't the energy of the spirits that aided them, though, he could tell that much. It was the wrong hue, with more purple and blue to it, but it was tighter and more controlled than the usual arcane power Li wielded.

Then, when the other versions of Li faded into nothing and he could see the wizard himself a bit better, a horrible thought occurred to him that made something tighten in his chest. Akarat's _mercy_ , Li was taking his power from that of his own _soul_!

Li's archon form wavered, but didn't fade. Not having to focus on maintaining the mirror images or black holes anymore, he poured everything he had into the disintegration spell, pushing the power of the spell up by orders of magnitude. It seared through Malthael's armor, and then his flesh. The angel screamed, but Li didn't ease off on the spell.

He maintained that form, and the channeling of that spell, until the angel of Death was nothing but a vaguely body-shaped pattern of ash and dust on the floor. Lyndon stared in slack-jawed awe, partly amazed and partly mortified. Then, as the last vestiges of his Archon form faded, all of Li's remaining willpower seemed to go with it, and the wizard's legs buckled under his own weight.

Without fully being aware of it, Lyndon broke into a run.

 


	18. Not Bad, As Endings Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last actual plotty chapter.

Everything for the first few minutes after Malthael's death felt like it was happening in slow motion.

Lyndon reached the wizard's side and fell to his knees, scooping the smaller man up in his arms gently and brushing some of the hair out of his face with a shaky hand as he looked him over. What he found made his breath catch uncomfortably in his throat. Li's robe had been slashed in a few places, with some being near-misses but others already having become partially clotted wounds. The man was pale as a ghost, and only barely breathing. He didn't look to be conscious either. However, if those were the only things wrong, then the solution probably would have been to try and force a healing potion down the man's throat. As things were, Lyndon wasn't sure that would help; he wasn't even sure that there was anything he could do.

He'd never come across a case of a person bleeding from the ears, nose, and corners of the eyes that hadn't been deadly serious.

The nearest waypoint was too far off, and Lyndon had no talent for making portals even _with_ one of those wretched scrolls. Damn, damn, _damn_. He pulled Li a little closer to his chest and bowed his head enough to kiss the wizard's forehead, even though he knew Li couldn't feel it. Probably better that way. He'd never hear the end of it otherwise.

_If he makes it through this_ , he reminded himself bitterly. What good had the thief been, even? Nearly getting himself killed and necessitating a rescue, that was about all he was good for. Bloody useless _normal_ person in a world of freaks and mad people. Every time he tried to do something right, it just got everyone around him hurt, because his _normalcy_ meant that he dragged down all the more gifted people he got close to. And he'd tried _not_ to get too close to Li, he really had, he'd tried to keep it from getting any closer than being friends. Even when it became more obvious that Li either fancied him or just didn't have any concept of boundaries, he'd tried to stay friends.

Because, well, he really _liked_ having him around, damn it!

And by the time he figured out that his distance was actually hurting the man, there hadn't been time to act on it or make it right, because the world was so _determined_ to go to hell on them all. Between his brother, and Adria, and Urzael, and Malthael, they'd been running about like chickens with the heads lopped off ever since they'd left Bastion's Keep.

Oh, _gods_ , his brother. Lyndon swallowed heavily. That should have been his problem and his _alone_. Would have been, were he not travelling with the merry band of misfits. Li wouldn't have had to deal with it, then, and maybe he wouldn't have been so exhausted going into this. Nor would he have had to save the thief during the battle, come to think of it. Even if it meant that Lyndon would be dead in a gutter somewhere due to having never met the wizard and his companions, that was mostly fine. He'd accepted that he wouldn't live very long with his lifestyle.

_He's loved you since Caldeum, idiot_. Ander's words came back to Lyndon and he snorted. What was there worth loving? Compared to the fascinating, complex, powerful, _kind_ man in his arms... Hell, there _wasn't_ a comparison. Yet Lyndon was going to survive, and Li probably didn't have long enough to live for the thief to even carry him back to camp. Not if the spells he'd been forcing himself to cast towards the end had melted his damn _brain_ or something.

Lyndon was so absorbed in his self-loathing tirade that he didn't initially _notice_ when Ander and Tyrael stepped through the portal. The clicking of Ander's claw-boots on the floor were what finally drew his attention; when he looked up, he realized that he couldn't see what sort of magic surrounded either of them anymore.

Ah, so the spirits were properly free then. _Hope you can rest in peace now, Edlin_ , he thought.

"Where is the black soulstone?" Tyrael asked grimly. Ander was poking at the pile of ash where Malthael had been with the toe of his boot, eyebrows raised. Both of them looked a bit worse for wear.

What had Li said about what'd happened, again? "Malthael, erm..." Gods, his voice was in bad shape. Lyndon cleared his throat quickly before continuing with his answer, "Malthael absorbed it, and all the Evils along with it."

"Then Malthael's death will have released Diablo... He is free." The former angel sounded horrified, but Lyndon waved his comment away dismissively with his bloodied hand, irritated. Was Tyrael _blind_?

"Yes, yes, world in peril again and all that." With a grunt, Lyndon picked the unconscious wizard up more properly and got to his feet. Li was lighter than he expected. Trust the daft bastard to be skipping meals when the world needed saving. "Portal. _Now_."

His tone didn't leave room for any further questions, so they didn't ask any. Maybe there was hope for the wizard yet.

\---

Several hours passed, and Lyndon absolutely refused to be seen by any of the people capable of healing until Li had been seen to, when they got back to Westmarch. The fires had been put out, and the survivor's enclave was bustling with activity upon their return. This was partly due to their own return, and partly due to what Han, Eirena, Kormac and even _Shen_ had been doing in their abscence.

As he wrung his hands on the cathedral steps and waited for everyone to be done fixing up Li inside, he got a fairly good grasp on what had gone on while he'd been away, mostly through overhearing the conversations that went on around him. Initially, Han had gone to help Eirena with some business regarding her sisters. One of them had been alive, and made a deal with a demon of some description to save herself from the same fate that the other girls had ended up meeting. They'd found her as a twisted half-demon _thing_ that was hell-bent on tearing Eirena to bits for her perceived betrayal, when really, Eirena was just the one who'd been picked by her Prophet fellow to survive out of all of them by absolutely arbitrary means.

_Then_ , to top it off, Shen had found his jewel-thing - which Lyndon _knew_ the man would go on about to anyone who might sit still to listen - only to learn after what was apparently one _hell_ of a dungeon-crawl on the part of Han, Kormac, and an overwrought Eirena that the monster trapped in it had escaped into the world. Meaning that Shen's epic search had accomplished absolutely _bugger-all_ in the end, which sounded about right to Lyndon. The world as it was just couldn't abide a happy ending to anything.

Except... Li was alive, wasn't he? And with two healers, a mage and a mystic, he stood a chance. Lyndon allowed himself a faint smile. He wouldn't have to lose someone else.

"Lyndon?" Eirena startled him out of his thoughts with her gentle voice, coming out of the cathedral and sitting down on the steps next to him. "I did not expect you to still be waiting here."

"Didn't you?" Even to himself, he sounded tired. He smirked at her, but from the way she gave him a sympathetic look in return, he supposed it wasn't particularly convincing. "Judging by the fact that _you_ were the only one to come out and you're not _sobbing_ grossly, I'll assume that he's... stabilized?"

She lowered her head a little. "Yes. But he is severely weakened." She took his injured hand, possibly to distract herself; clicking her tongue, she started pulling off his glove, which made him hiss as the dried blood and clotting came away with it. "Can you tell me what has happened?" she asked.

Since she'd been the one to prod Lyndon about getting his injuries seen to when he'd arrived, he didn't stop her; now that Li was all right, he was fine with it. "He did too much, I think. Arrogant sod, thinks he's-- _ow_ , invincible." He knew she was _trying_ to be gentle, but it still hurt.

Eirena hummed thoughtfully, her fingers tracing the wounds as she surveyed the extent of the damage. "What did he do too much of?"

"Magic, obviously. Clearly I'm _no_ expert on the matter, but even _I'm_ fairly sure that one shouldn't have the mirror-things do the full-strength Archon blasty bit along _with_ the black hole things." He wasn't sure of the spell names, but they sounded _almost_ right. That was good enough. Lyndon wasn't about to concentrate on remembering technicals when Eirena was poking an open wound.

She nodded in understanding, her delicate features creasing into a concerned frown. "That must be why he is in such a state, then..." she murmured, distractedly beginning a healing spell.

Lyndon's brow furrowed. "What sort of _state_?" The healing tingled, but he mostly ignored it.

"Well, it is difficult to explain..." she began, not looking up from the healing. "Do you know what it is like when a loud noise happening very near to your head will deafen you for a time? Or a shock from a lightning spell will disrupt your nerves?"

"Yyyyes. A _bit._ " The latter was something he only knew from having been caught in some stray spellwork by the wizard himself.

"It is rather similar to that," she concluded with a nod. She seemed relieved that she didn't have to come up with a complicated explanation. "Except, instead of sound or touch, it is magic that his body cannot perceive."

He gave her a funny look. "And just _how_ do you know what he can or can't perceive when he's out cold?"

"Because I'm not."

Lyndon jumped, craning his neck to look behind him. Suddenly his injured hand was forgotten, and he was up on his feet with a triumphant laugh before Eirena could stop him. He threw his arms around the wizard standing in the doorway. " _Hah_! You daft _bastard_ , what're you doing up, eh?"

Li _oof_ ed, awkwardly patting Lyndon's shoulder. His hair was down and he was shirtless and wrapped in bandages, as well as in desperate need of a wash. "Lyndon, I can't breathe," he noted after a moment.

"Oh, right, sorry." The thief drew back and set his hands on Li's shoulders. Then, he gave him the best stern glare that he could muster under the circumstances, which wasn't really all that stern because he had to suppress a smile to do it. "Don't _ever_ scare me like that again, you prick."

"I make no promises." There was hardly any guilt to that tone. In fact, the wizard was smiling. He looked _relieved_. Over _what_ , Lyndon wasn't sure.

It looked like Lyndon was about to say something, but he stopped himself when he realized Eirena was still there, looking over at her. "...Erm." He frowned slightly and glanced at Li. "...You don't mind if I snog you in front of people, do you?"

Li was taken aback by that. He turned a little bit pink around the edges. "I thought _you'd_ mind that sort of thing more than I."

"Pff, hah! Me? I've done _far_ worse in public, I assure you." Lyndon told him with a crooked grin.

Their little exchange had started to draw a crowd. People both in and out of the cathedral were watching, and the wizard ducked his head with embarassment. "Of that I'm sure, but it's more due to the fact... that, uhm..."

"What, that we're both _men_?" Li nodded mutely in answer, and Lyndon scoffed. "That's rubbish."

The shorter man hmphed and straightened, setting his jaw stubbornly. "I don't think so. It's a perfectly valid concern," he insisted, still blushing.

He was only going to keep arguing, wasn't he? Lyndon rolled his eyes and sighed with exasperation. _Fine_. Words weren't working. A demonstration would have to suffice instead. And that little clump of people that had formed around them? They almost all  _cheered_ when he pulled Li into a rather passionate kiss. So he was fairly sure the _public_  didn't give a rat's arse.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR READING OMG.
> 
> Prolly gonna be a smutty epilogue. We'll see. AND THEN ANOTHER FIC THAT COMES AFTER THIS ONE, dealing with overloaded circuits wizard being annoyed with himself and probably from his point of view because some fun shit happens there that I won't spoil. And then another that's a parallel to the story as a whole from Kormac's point of view, *possibly*. Not sure on that last one. I got one chapter in and then decided Kormac isn't quite as fun to write as Lyndon is. >.>;


	19. Brought Down to Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Li has some confidence issues. Lyndon is exasperated. Everyone else just thinks they should probably get on with it already.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT ISN'T SMUT I'M SORRY. I blame the characters. Cuddly bastards. Pfff. A lot of things would be solved if they just said things more up-front-like to begin with.

With their savior finally up and about, the whole enclave breathed a sigh of relief and moved on to the next step after every big victory: celebration. Myriam had whipped up a small feast for them with the aid of some raided abandoned cellars and a few of the locals, and Lyndon was all too eager to join in the fun. However, he had a wizard to attend to.

It wasn't obvious at first that Li didn't have his magic to rely on, and as such, Lyndon's attitude towards it was "eh, so he can't blow things up" more than any actual worry. Perhaps he was just happy enough that the wizard wouldn't _die_ on him, and that caused him to overlook how disoriented and pale the smaller man seemed. Or maybe he'd never be able to know the kind of convenience that magic provides, and so he couldn't quite understand straightaway how unused to the mundane Li was. But _really_ , he would have thought that lacing up one's spare tunic or remembering to flip the page of a book instead of _frowning_ at it or spreading butter on a bit of bread were _simple_ things!

Just how long had Li been relying on magic for basically _everything_ , anyway? Lyndon found himself thinking that more than once as he hovered around the wizard, just _waiting_ for him to muck something up. It felt like it happened more often as time wore on, or maybe the thief was just noticing things more often since he was watching for them. He didn't feel comfortable leaving the man alone; Li burned himself trying to pick up something to eat that was still too hot or seemed to think that staring at a pepper grinder would bring it into his hand every time Lyndon looked away for even a moment, and the poor rogue quickly went from amused to completely _exasperated_.

"You're absolutely _rubbish_ at being one of us mortals, aren't you?" he noted as he had to assist the younger man in the _operation_ of the pepper grinder after retrieving it.

Li blushed a little with embarassment and glared at the thief. Not that he was very good at glaring at the taller man to begin with, but if Lyndon had to draw a comparison, it was analogous to the look he might get from a wet kitten he held by the scruff. "If _you_ became a cripple, I wouldn't make this much fun of you."

"Yes you would," Lyndon replied without hesitation. "And at the very least, I'm not being condescending about it."

"No, you're being smug instead. I'm not entirely sure which is worse."

"It depends, would you rather I pity you, _or_ would you rather I get annoyed and do things for you because you're _terrible_ at them?"

"I think you're trying to annoy me into learning to do them myself so you won't have to," the wizard said with the beginnings of a smirk.

"Oh, is it working?"

"A bit. I don't like being pampered if I'm not the one doing it for myself."

Lyndon grinned. "Spoken like a true egotist."

"And you're _not_?" The smaller man sounded incredulous, pointing accusingly at Lyndon with a bit of carrot on the fork he was pointing with. "It takes quite an ego to think you can handle all your own problems by yourself."

"I think you're _projecting_ a bit, there. I _do_ usually talk to you about things when you're not being difficult."

"Hmph." Li turned away and went back to his food for a moment, politely waiting to continue until he'd swallowed his bite. He'd also turned a little pink around the edges again and was decidedly not looking at Lyndon. "I'll only concede the point of being _difficult_ if you do the same."

Lyndon put a hand on his chest and feigned surprise. " _Me_? I'm one of the easiest people in the world."

"To get into bed with, maybe," Li shot back. "Then you're difficult to keep."

"I'm still having a bit of trouble deciding why one of the most powerful wizards in the world would _want_ to keep a normal fellow like me." That... had been easier to admit than he thought it might be.

The mage responded by peering at Lyndon for a moment, then getting an odd grin that Lyndon couldn't interpret. "I wouldn't know," he began, "but I would know why the _most_ powerful wizard in the world might like to keep you."

Curiosity piqued, the thief lifted a brow. "And do you intend to fill me in?"

"Nope." With that said, Li took a final sip of his coffee, set his utensils down, and pushed away from the table. "I'm going to go for a walk. It should be fine for me to do that much on my own. Go ahead and finish eating."

Lyndon blinked at that. "You're sure? For all I know you could trip on an inch-high step or some such nonsense."

"Hah, I'm sure," said Li, giving the thief a smile. "Besides, I don't want you to tire of me."

What? How had he gotten that idea? "You know, I think that would take a bit longer than a few _hours_... if it were to happen at _all_ , really."

The smile faltered. Ahh, so this was one of those _things_ that the wizard worried about. Along with those questions of orientation, probably. "Your numerous conquests would indicate otherwise," Li said, more quietly than when he'd spoken before.

Yep. One of those things. Lyndon let out a heavy sigh and pushed himself up out of his seat, stretching and flexing to get the kinks out. "That's it, we're settling this."

"What...?" A hint of fear could be seen in Li's eyes.

"Just what I said. We're going to do this _right_. It's obvious that _talking_ about it hasn't been working, so I'll have to demonstrate instead." He met the wizard's gaze in as serious a way as he could manage.

It only took a second for Li to understand, at which point he looked slightly panicked. "What, _here_?"

"Don't be _absurd_ , of course not." People were looking at them oddly; Lyndon noticed, sighed again and stepped up to take the smaller man by the elbow, leading him away gently until they were out of the clearing as well as out of earshot.

Apparently that was enough to calm the wizard, but he still kept casting nervous glances behind him. In the back of his mind Lyndon wondered what sort of influence might have contributed to Li's current hesitance, and whether or not it was something he was able to put a crossbow bolt in. "You've already tried putting your tongue down my throat in public," Li noted, keeping his voice down.

"That was... a different _sort_ of demonstration. And it was a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing. Some things require quite a bit more _care_ if they're to be done correctly."

"This still seems like a spur-of-the-moment decision from where I'm standing."

Did it? Well, honestly, he hadn't thought it through _entirely_ yet, but planning it _all_ out in advance got boring. "Like you're _not_ known for those," he scoffed. "Besides, if I think it through much more I might make _myself_ nervous and change my mind."

Li bit his lip. "...What would your _demonstration_ entail, then?"

Lyndon fought the urge to cheer. " _Well_. I was thinking we might make use of one of those abandoned nobles' homes in the Heights. There's so few people left that it's likely they haven't even been properly _looted_ yet. Then we could both get a proper bath and... oh, I don't know." He shrugged, feigning indecision as he paused for dramatic effect. "Borrow one of those big fancy noble beds for a bit?"

"...I could use a bath." the wizard answered after taking a moment to think on it. Lyndon just grinned broadly.

_Success_.

\---

A half hour later, they'd found a suitably abandoned and _fairly_ clean mansion. Lyndon had to work the bath, because Li was so used to just _conjuring_ water and keeping it at the right temperature with magic that he didn't quite know how to do things normally. The downtime between arriving and actually getting into the bath saw the both of them in different rooms; as the wizard was getting undressed, Lyndon was searching the cellar for a proper oil to use, as well as a fresh bar of soap and extra linens.

He was going to do this _right_. He was going to take his time, and he was going to try _not_ to blunder into things. Because, well... _damnit_ , if there was anything he was sure of it was that he really got along with Li and enjoyed having the man around, and that the wizard's little brush with death had scared the _hell_ out of him. If that wasn't some form of attraction, he wasn't sure what was. It was definitely enough to work with. He'd done more before based off of less. Even if it wasn't _love_ , it was enough to keep him from running away.

This train of thought continued as he came back upstairs, setting a few of the things he'd gotten down on the bed and taking a few more into the bathroom with him from a cupboard in the hall. When he got into the room, however, everything in his arms sort of just _fell_ to the floor with a series of _fwumf_ s and _thump_ s.

Really, Lyndon hadn't actually looked at his male companions all that much before. He didn't see occasion to; even though he wasn't one to care what sort of partners he bedded, he didn't make a habit of pursuing men just because they tended to make things more complicated. But the wizard lounging stark naked in the bath as he was, with his hair down and plastered against his rather pale wet skin, was bloody _gorgeous_. Stunning, even.

And apparently the thief was staring, because Li glanced up at the noise and met his gaze curiously, before a smirk spread slowly across his face. "Something the matter, Lyndon?"

Had Li's face always looked that delicate when his hair was down? "Erm..." Oh, right. Bath. Lyndon hurriedly started yanking off layers, partly in an effort to obscure his clear embarassment. "No, no. Nothing's wrong." His voice was betraying him; he mentally cursed it and cleared his throat.

Still looking amused, Li shrugged and leaned back in the luxurious manner of a cat basking in a puddle of sunlight. He lifted one leg out of the water long enough to cross it over the other, and sighed in a way that was just over-dramatized enough that Lyndon knew it was all for show. Cheeky bastard, doing it on purpose to bother him. After pulling off the last of his clothes, Lyndon picked up the soap - the fancy sort with a pleasant smell, not the nasty lye soap that he remembered from when he was a child - and took it with him as he stepped towards the bath and tried _not_ to look excited.

"So _very_ kind of you to leave room," he said with some sarcasm, bending to push the wizard's legs and feet out of the way enough that he could climb in.

As Lyndon settled into the pleasantly hot water, he was poked in the chest with a small, dainty wizard-foot. "Your _gut_ takes up more space than I do."

"I'll have you know, I don't have a _gut_. You're just too thin by comparison." With Li in the bath as well, he couldn't quite sink down enough to wet his hair completely. At least he could start scrubbing off some of the caked-on muck from adventuring, though.

Li huffed. It took a considerable amount of effort on Lyndon's part to keep himself from staring at what was very clearly on display. The young wizard really didn't have much in the way of body hair, did he? "Magic is hard work, you know."

Lyndon was poked by that wandering foot again, in the gut that time. "No, keeping up with _you_ is hard work. How you manage to always get so far ahead is beyond me." He almost made a comment about the man's short legs, but thought better of it because the very notion put him on a train of thought that had to do with wondering if he could get those legs over his shoulders.

"Magic, coffee, and adrenaline." Unfortunately, Li had noticed the sort of effect he was having on the thief. His brows lifted, and with a sly smirk he sat up straighter and leaned forward. "You're sure nothing's wrong, Lyndon?" he asked in that low, purring voice of his.

"What? Oh, erm." Though he wasn't about to admit it, Lyndon had a strong, sudden urge to close the last of that distance and pull the wizard in for a kiss. As for saving himself from embarassment, he was having a hard time - ha! - thinking of a way to do so. "...frankly? I worry if we keep _this_ up neither of us will have energy left to make proper use of the bed."

The shorter man pouted at him and _hmph_ ed. A moment's worth of deliberation later, he seemed to decide on something, and suddenly Lyndon had a lap full of wizard, with thin arms draped around his neck and a surprisingly shapely arse perched on his thighs. Akarat's _mercy_ , there was scarcely an inch between them. " _You_ talked _me_ into this, and now you've gotten shy about it?"

Where was he supposed to put his hands? He settled for resting them on Li's hips. There was a little bit of relief in knowing at a glance that the wizard was just as _affected_ as he was. "Well..." Lyndon looked up again to try and guess what Li might be thinking and was met with intense scrutiny and an uncertain frown. Right, he probably wasn't giving the man any _confidence_ acting like he'd gotten cold feet. "It's just... I'm not _used_ to this. Sorry."

That had been the wrong thing to say. Li wilted in his arms and began shying away from him. "You should have just said you weren't sure." Oh bloody _hell_. He felt like he'd just kicked a puppy.

Deciding there wasn't anything else for it, Lyndon pulled the wizard - he felt so _fragile_ , had Li always felt so small or had Lyndon just never noticed because of his magic and the fact that he didn't really hug him all that often? - into a warm embrace, kissing the younger man's neck gently. "Shhhhshsh. I'm sure. I just don't want to hurt you, that's all." Dear gods, Li really was a mess.

"...Hah." The laugh was a small, self-depricating one; Li pressed his face into the thief's shoulder and Lyndon could feel the man sigh against his skin. "And you wonder why I want to keep you."

"So long as you still _do_ ," he replied quietly. Earnestly. "I'm not leaving you, Li. Not unless you ask for it."

Li pulled back enough to peer at him, probably to discern whether or not he was lying. Any uncertainty Lyndon may have had about how to treat the wizard was dispelled when Li caught his lips with a clumsy insistance, all bumping noses and lack of technique; he still needed to work on teaching the wizard how to kiss, didn't he? Though Lyndon still groaned into it when the slightest shift in position had them grinding together. _That_ didn't require much finesse.

The bathwater was losing its heat. "Bed?" he asked, when they finally parted for breath. Li chuckled and nodded. The thief quietly hoped that he wouldn't have to do too much more reassuring.

 


	20. All's Well

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two goofballs don't even stop snarking in bed. And then they snark some more, just for good measure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY SHIT LAST CHAPTER. Unless I end up making an epilogue. Finally though, I can move on to other fics.
> 
> Damn this thing ran long.

The journey between bath and bed was, in Lyndon's mind, fairly uneventful. Though, that might have just been his prior experience talking. He only smacked Li with a drying cloth _once_ , after all, and considering the thief was doing his level best to _avoid_ pinning the smaller man to a wall and kissing him breathless, Lyndon felt rather proud of his own self-control. Especially since taking more time to _look_ at Li meant he was noticing more things that made him want to do just that.

Oh, sure, Li had slim shoulders and he was _scrawny_ and he had about as much muscle mass as a _leper_ , but all those other things that might make him stereotypically effeminate didn't really _register_ to Lyndon because, frankly, they were fairly common amongst slum-dwelling underfed _thieves_ like the ones he'd called his guildmates until several months prior. Hell, the rogue had probably looked just as bad himself, right up until he'd started gaining some muscle from all that adventuring. So to him, Li was about on the same level of attractiveness as any other man might be. Until very, _very_ recently, anyway.

Because for a man, the wizard had surprisingly nice _curves_. Lyndon suddenly understood why he wore all those swishy, flowing robes all the bloody time, even as they'd get caught in things and get tattered around the edges by the end of an afternoon; the swishy, flowing robes in question did a marvelous job of distracting from - and outright _hiding_ \- the sort of arse that quite a few women would probably be envious of. Li even had that thigh gap _thing_ that he'd heard one or two of them obsessing over, though to be quite honest Lyndon would have preferred it if the wizard weren't quite so thin as that. As a friend, he didn't quite like that Li was showing signs of not eating enough.

...As a friend? Hah. No, that was wrong, they'd gone a bit past _that_ , hadn't they?

"You're staring. I'm not sure if I should take it as a compliment or not." Li's words cut off the thief's line of thought mid-stream before he could consider it further, and he flashed a cheeky grin at the wizard in response.

"Why not? After all, it implies that there's something worth staring at, doesn't it?" He noted that the smaller man was leaned against the doorway to the bedroom, and brushed aside the thought of running his fingers through that soft, still-damp hair that had partly fallen into Li's eyes. Would it get him a swift kick in the balls if he told the wizard that he looked prettier with his hair down?

Probably. "You go to such great lengths to convince everyone how much you admire the female form that I can't help but wonder." The words were a clear trap, judging by Li's smirk and the way he casually folded his arms as he watched Lyndon with raised brows.

Was this going to be one of those situations where he was damned to sleeping on the couch no matter which way he answered? Lyndon decided that avoiding the matter entirely was probably the best option, looking as innocent as he could manage as he stepped past the wizard through the door and into the bedroom. "Hm~? About what?" He flopped down on the impossibly soft nobles' bed and tucked his hands behind his head as he leaned back against the headboard.

"Well..." Li began, moving to follow him (Lyndon took it as a good sign that the man was obviously barely able to keep himself from grinning), "...you _could_ just be telling yourself to focus on whatever is _least_ masculine so you're able to perform." There was very little hesitation in how he climbed onto the bed and settled into Lyndon's lap for the second time that night, with a leg on either side of him.

"I see a flaw in your hypothetical situation already. Focusing on what's _least_ masculine would require that you shut up." Slender arms wrapped lazily around his neck, and Lyndon responded by settling his hands on the mage's waist. "Your voice is like that of a fifty year old man who substitutes smoking pipe tobacco for breathing."

"Yes, it's one of my better qualities." Li was practically draped over him by that point, and it caused the rogue to wonder who exactly the submissive party _was_ when he couldn't say that he minded it particularly.

Weren't they supposed to be _doing_ something? "What would you have done if I _were_ thinking of you as a woman?" Stormed off, maybe.

Except the grin Li got on his face was downright _evil_. "Demonstrated otherwise," he said simply.

"You-- hold on." That grin only broadened as Lyndon considered the full implications of the younger man's statement. "You're serious, aren't you? Hah."

Li's grin quickly became a pout. "Just because you're a tall, strapping, _well-endowed_ sort doesn't mean you're automatically in charge, you know."

"Pff." Lyndon fought the urge to refute that last fact; he was _hardly_ the most well-endowed man around, but Li's points of reference probably consisted of himself and _maybe_ a couple of others. Likely it'd just make the poor man feel worse about himself than he already _did_.

Instead, he sat up a little bit straighter so that he might plant a kiss at the corner of the wizard's lips to ease that frown, and then slipped a hand between them to distract Li from all his bloody _worrying_. It seemed to work, by the soft _ah_ that Lyndon's hand pulled from him and the way his head dipped to lean into the thief's shoulder.

"I could never be in charge of _you_ , could I?" Lyndon murmured, smirking faintly.

But Li shook his head, biting his lip as he gathered his thoughts. It probably didn't help that Lyndon was still stroking him in an effort to actively keep him from thinking. "If you wanted to, _now_ , you could," he finally managed, breathlessly.

 _Oh_. "...Do I seem like the sort who _would_?"

"Heh." Lyndon had paused for a moment, and it gave the wizard time to catch his breath. "...No. It's a bit silly, isn't it?"

" _Completely_ ridiculous. I think the lack of magic has made you go slightly loopy." Both of them relaxed a little, and the thief resumed his previous activities.

He had to admit, it was amusing to watch Li try and maintain his composure with a hand on his cock. "It's-- _mm_ , entirely possible," he began, and then he let out an irritated kind of growl as he gave up trying to sound smart. "--I think what you're doing counts as _cheating_ , right now."

Lyndon snickered. Rogue one, wizard nil. "No, it's called _foreplay_. Not something you have much experience with, I'd wager."

"I have _enough_ ," Li countered, glaring at him about as threateningly as a kitten might, "to know that you're being a damn _tease_."

"Oh, and you'd know all about that, wouldn't you." The way the wizard had acted in the bath came to mind. Then again, Lyndon wouldn't have gotten half as far as he had if he didn't have a tolerance for Li's particular brand of absolute _madness_. He might even say that he thought it was a little bit _cute_... when the younger man wasn't being bloody _impossible_.

And Lyndon would have to say his _impatience_ was one of those things that just contributed to the impossible bits and the cute bits at the same time. Impossibly. Because the wizard's little _whine_ as he let out an annoyed sigh against Lyndon's neck was far more adorable than Li could have intended it to be. "Just _do_ something," he insisted, a little petulantly. Almost _pleadingly_.

Gods, how was he supposed to resist _that_?

Barely remembering to reach for the small bottle he'd retrieved earlier - it seemed like hours ago - and fumbling with the stopper, Lyndon had to put the attentions he was giving the wizard briefly on hold for the sake of coating his fingers with oil. Li seemed a bit frustrated, but otherwise looked like he appreciated having the chance to breathe; meanwhile, it was all Lyndon could do to figure out how much he was supposed to use. He remembered that it had been a _thing_ , just not the exact details. All the men he'd been with previously, and the number didn't even come out to a half dozen, had been far more experienced than he had. Certainly far more experienced than Li was.

 _Technically_ , they'd done this before, but Lyndon barely remembered it. Had he even thought to do this much, then? Had they gotten this far? The rogue vaguely recalled being satisfied, but that _really_ didn't take much when he was absolutely pissed out of his bloody _mind_. Akarat's blessed _balls_ , he'd just gone about life like it hadn't mattered at all. No wonder the wizard had so many _problems_ lately--

" _Lyndon_ ," the man in question said in a low, warning tone. "You're _thinking_ again. That _isn't_ what I meant when I told you to _do_ something."

"Right, right. Sorry." Lyndon decided at that moment that he was clearly _thick_ for questioning the motives of someone in his _lap_ , and started to slip his hand around behind the wizard. Puzzlingly though, that hand was smacked aside with a slight snarl.

"Just... _nevermind_. I'll do it." Before Lyndon could protest, Li had nicked the bottle and poured a good portion of its contents into his hand. "I don't like being treated like _glass_ anyway." And on the word _glass_ Lyndon tipped his head back and groaned, because that hand was on his neglected member and Li was _not_ shy or hesitant about getting him thoroughly slicked with that oil.

It was probably a _good_ thing that Li had soft, delicate hands like a girl's, right then, because if they'd been all calloused and rough like a man's usually would be, it wouldn't be _nearly_ as pleasant. "Could, _nnh_ , could treat _me_ a little more gently," Lyndon suggested. Wait, did he _really_ sound that strained? Ack. "Do you even have a _plan_?" he asked after it occurred to him that the wizard was even _less_ likely to think things through than he was, himself.

The cocky grin he was given as a response did nothing to dispel that thought. "Nope." Oh, good. Li was being just as careless as usual. Everything was back to normal, then. "But if I take the lead, it might keep you from _worrying_ so much," the smaller man added as an afterthought with a light shrug.

" _Hardly_. You're even more reckless than I am." Li gave him a few more good strokes that had him sucking in a hissing gasp through his teeth. Then the wizard absently wiped his hand on the sheets and shifted in Lyndon's lap so that he was up on his knees; the thief set his own hands on Li's hips, raising an eyebrow at him. "Not that I'm about to stop you, but--"

"Good," the mage said before Lyndon could finish that sentence. "Now, shut up and hold still a moment."

Obediently, Lyndon shut his mouth and didn't reply beyond a smirk. He couldn't complain about the view, anyway, seeing as he got a chance to properly take it in while Li was busy positioning himself. Mostly-dry hair had gone a little frizzy and fluffy due to the wizard not having done anything with it, and the way it fell in his face and framed his slight frown of concentration was _terribly_ cute. So that was why Li was always fussing with it and keeping it pulled back-- _oh_.

Ohhh, Akarat's _mercy_ , that was a tight fit, wasn't it? Lyndon rested his head on the wizard's shoulder, letting out an unsteady breath. Then he realized that Li was trembling, just slightly. Just enough to be a hint that he probably needed a moment.

Not that the man was giving himself one; Li bit his lip to quiet himself, hard enough that Lyndon thought he might split it again, and didn't pause until every last _inch_ of the thief's length was inside, even going so far as to guide it in those last few centimeters with a shaky hand. Lyndon would think it was impressive if he could _think_ at all, but the wizard was the complete opposite of what one might call _relaxed_ , squeezing him tightly enough that it was overwhelming to the point of being _uncomfortable_.

Once he was settled, the younger man gave a shuddering, low moan and leaned his weight heavily against Lyndon, winding an arm around the thief's neck and panting against his skin. "... _Damn_ ," he murmured. "Just... _mmh_ , give me a moment."

Lyndon snorted quietly. Arrogant sod. "A bit too much for you?"

Li looked up to shoot him a glare. "I told you to be _quiet_."

"You told me to shut up and hold still a _moment_ ," the rogue clarified. "Would you rather we switch our positions around?"

" _No_." Ooh, tetchy. "I just... need to adjust. It's _different_."

"You know, I don't even know where to _begin_ asking with that statement." Smirking to himself, Lyndon lifted a hand to brush some of the wizard's hair behind his ear. At least he was relaxing a little.

Something - and Lyndon wasn't quite sure _what_ , but he didn't like not being in on the joke - got the younger man to smile and snicker faintly. "Good. I'd feel awkward trying to--" he paused briefly then to lift himself a couple of inches, before easing himself down onto the thief's length again so slowly that it was _torturous_ , "-- _nngh_... elaborate. Gods, how do women _manage_ this?" Still, at least he was moving, even if it wasn't _nearly_ enough.

But honestly, going slow was _fine_. Lyndon probably would have, himself, if he were in charge. Just for the sake of being careful. "Mm. They're a bit better... _equipped_ for it," Thinking was getting difficult. It was almost impossible to come up with anything clever to say when he would much rather focus on the tight heat surrounding him, and the warm body draped over his own. Automatically he rolled his hips to match the wizard's maddeningly slow pace, and he was awarded a hitch in the younger man's breath and a faint moan in return.

The position they were in made it hard for Lyndon to do much of anything beyond following the wizard's lead, but once Li got a bit of momentum going, the rogue began to wonder how long he might _last_. A brief once-over told him that the smaller man wasn't enjoying it quite as much as he was, which bothered him more than a bit.

It was one thing for the wizard to outlast him, but quite another entirely that Li might not be having that much fun at all.

Not that Li was quietly enduring something totally unpleasant; on the contrary, he was _quite_ vocal, letting out his fair share of little _ah_ s and _oh_ s and even the occasional _mmf_. They weren't the sorts of sounds, however, that indicated what he was experiencing was _good_ rather than just strange and uncomfortable and a bit intense.

Lyndon wasn't _quite_ as sure of the particulars on how to please another man aside from the obvious, and getting creative would've required effort. So, while still trying not to throw off the wizard's pace, he snuck a hand between them and wrapped it around the younger man's length so he could try for the obvious option. Li's reaction was immediate and encouraging; he bucked into that hand with a gasp, followed by a furrowing of his brows and a whine that was muffled by yet more lip-biting.

"I-if you do that, I--" he panted, but Lyndon shut him up with a firm kiss. It was the next best thing he could do aside from telling him _yes, that's rather the point_ when he didn't trust his voice not to betray how close he was, himself. Clearly the wizard didn't mind, practically _melting_ against him with a poorly-stifled groan. When they parted from the kiss, both of them were finding it hard to breathe.

Li was the first to tip over the edge, clinging to the thief with a choked yell that he quickly forced back to a broken whimper. Blunt nails dug into Lyndon's shoulders as the younger man briefly went tense as a drawn bowstring, even trembling faintly, and it was all the rogue could do just to ride it out because dear _gods_ the way Li had tightened around him was exquisite. If he were still thinking straight he would've pulled out, but such a courtesy didn't even have a chance to occur to him before he came, shuddering and panting heavily.

For a couple of minutes afterward, neither of them moved much. Lyndon wasn't quite sure who was leaning against whom, nor was he sure whether it was the sex itself or a combination of the cool night air and the fine sweat they'd broken into that had them both shivering.

A blanket might be a good idea... _later_. Right then he was just trying to get his breath back.

On a whim, he moved to press his lips to the younger man's own, only to frown and pull away when he tasted something metallic. Li didn't seem to understand straight away _why_ the thief wasn't snogging him, and gave Lyndon a confused pout.

"...You know you _really_ should do something about that habit you have of _gnawing_ on your lip until you split it," the rogue noted with a slight smirk after he'd discovered the cause (it was a bit of a relief too, because his first thought as to why he might be tasting blood was considerably _darker_ than that).

Li blinked. Then his pout turned into a smile, and he _laughed_. It was possibly the best sound Lyndon had heard all day.

\---

The trouble with both of them being utterly _mad_ was that they had both broken their sleeping schedules beyond repair. Both wizard and thief agreed that they should _probably_ sleep, but even though they were physically drained, mentally they were still _completely_ awake and probably had a couple of hours left in them still.

With neither of them having aged mentally beyond the age of _eight_ , they decided - after getting cleaned up, of course - that this was the perfect time to erect a pillow fort. In the end, though, they really only got halfway through this little task before physical exhaustion won out and they compromised on just having turned what was once a fancy, overlarge canopy bed made with nobility in mind into a haphazard nest of cushions, blankets, and pillows nicked from every bit of furniture that was in the master bedroom.

At some point, Li had stolen Lyndon's shirt, ragged and stained as it was. It was much too big for him, and certainly he looked too cute in it for Lyndon to complain. Then again, telling the man that he looked _cute_ in it would probably get the rogue shoved off of the bed, and since he was sort of _enjoying_ having a warm snuggly wizard nestled against his chest, he decided it was best not to mention it.

That didn't mean that there was nothing to talk about, however. "I wonder how long this might go on," Li mused, pursing his lips as he stared at his own hand and moved it in a way similar to how he would when casting.

"Well, don't ask _me_. I can barely enchant my _bolts_ without mucking it up," Lyndon responded with a snort.

"If it ends up having any sort of permenance, I'm about as useful as a pretty _paperweight_ , you know." With a sigh, the powerless mage let his hand fall back to the bed. "There aren't exactly precedents. Most who try that sort of _insanity_ just end up killing themselves and everything around them."

"Oh, good to know I would have been a _sacrifice_ for the greater good." Li looked up at him sharply with a stern glare. "...I'm _joking_ , Li."

The wizard huffed at him and cuddled a little closer, pouting. "...I shouldn't have risked it, all the same."

"Nonsense. The world is saved, isn't it? What's a little bit of _risk_ when the odds are already bugger-all?"

"None should have to pay for my recklessness but _me_ , Lyndon."

"And no one _did_ , so it's all perfectly _fine_." He was reminded of a conversation, seemingly ages ago, when he'd asked if Li ever doubted his choices. _Often, but I make them anyway_ had been the response then. Now Lyndon understood the full extent of what he'd meant by that. "Look, maybe later on when you're faced with the same sort of decision _again_ , you can do it differently and take less of a risk. But as things stand, literally _everyone_ in the whole sodding _world_ is alive because of that choice, Li. What's my life even _worth_ in comparison to that, eh?"

Li turned again to look at the thief, craning his neck. That tight frown of his spoke _volumes_ , even though he wasn't willing to. "...I saw a sorceress who'd been killed in the middle of a spell, once," he said after a long pause. "I know... what it could have _done_ , if I were to lose control. What I was doing was so much more _powerful_ than what she'd been trying to channel at the time of her death, there would have been nothing left of you to _bury_."

Maybe a few days ago Lyndon would have found such a statement exasperating, but instead he sighed and leaned over to kiss the wizard's forehead.

 _He's loved you since Caldeum, idiot_. Yes, well, it might not be _love_ but Lyndon had been scared out of his wits when he'd thought that Li had managed a proper heroic sacrifice, and that certainly counted for _something_.

He was getting frowned at more quizically as he failed to provide a proper joke or quip for the occasion, so eventually he gave in and broke the silence. "All right, so if you regret taking the risk _that_ much, maybe next time you'll think of me before you go and do something so monumentally _stupid_ again?"

"...Heh." It took a moment, but Li eventually did cheer a bit. "Honestly? I probably won't. Have you ever known me to think ahead?"

 _Finally_ , the tension was gone. "No, but it's worth a shot. I think your heroism is rubbing off on me, though. I almost sounded _noble_ there for a moment." Lyndon slipped back easily into the natural flow that their conversations seemed to have (which was a bit odd when he thought about it, since he didn't usually stay _friends_ with his lovers enough for after-sex conversations to go much beyond "again?").

"Oh, don't worry. It's probably just a phase. You'll be back to pilfering coin purses and breaking hearts before you know it."

"I'm sure quite a few hearts will break when the world learns I'm no longer _eligible_." The rogue smirked. Ha! There, he'd said it. Without even tripping over it, either!

Li didn't miss a beat, though, which sort of threw him off. That was a big thing he'd just admitted to, damn it. Oh well. "Speaking of that, will I have to do anything out of the ordinary to keep your many _tastes_ satisfied?"

"Erm, frankly you've _already_ done more than most women would."

"I _highly_ doubt that, Lyndon."

"No, really, you have. Ask a woman - no, even better, ask _Myriam_ \- what she thinks of something called _backdooring_ , and watch the sort of reaction you get for just bringing it up."

"Since that sounds like an obvious _trap_ , why don't you explain it to me instead."

"I feel a bit silly explaining anatomical _basics_ to someone who should _really_ know better."

"This is something to do with women being better _equipped_ , isn't it."

"--And so men have to improvise, in a way that women would consider a kink. Now you're catching on. Good _gods_ you can be thick sometimes."

"At least I don't have to be beaten about the head with facts before I figure something out."

"Ahhh, sadly, I've little to defend myself with on _that_ front."

"...You're supposed to argue the point, you know."

"Pff. _You're_ supposed to not point out our little game's workings."

"Fair enough, I suppose." Li relaxed against the thief's arm, shifting his weight; Lyndon was quietly relieved that the man had moved enough for the tingling in his fingers to ease. "...You don't have to stay if you don't want to."

He was still on about that? "I'm still here, aren't I?" It wasn't as if Lyndon had anywhere else to go. His brother was dead, and the thing with Rea was fairly obviously a trap. To be honest, Li was all he had left that was tangible.

It seemed that the wizard was aware of it, too. "Hah. That's true." One of his smaller hands had found Lyndon's previously injured one, and the thief's hand twitched as delicate fingertips traced the barely-healed scar. "For now."

"At this rate, we'll both be _dead_ at the hands or claws or teeth or magic of some mad _demon_ long before I've even _thought_ about leaving," Lyndon mentioned dryly.

Li chuckled. And for a very, _very_ brief moment, Lyndon let himself think that things might actually turn out okay.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY, HEY GUYS. THANKS FOR READING, OKAY. I love you all. You're all amazing.


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